Dimensional Warriors: Assorted Stories
by Pahhur
Summary: Join a cast of familiar and unfamiliar characters as they deal with an apocalyptic situation.  Includes characters from Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, InuYasha, Ranma 1/2, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, and Sonic.  Check out more at: pahhur. blogspot. com
1. Chapter 1

**Pahhur**

We were survivors, warriors. The elements were our weapons and even they withered away before our enemy. We were the fortunate, living by running over the bodies of hundreds; and here, hidden in a separate dimension, safe, we began preparing to retaliate.

It didn't take us long to secure food and water, but what we needed was an army. The fight had been joined by thousands. A little more than a dozen remained. We needed troops, and we needed to train those troops.

Tech was the one that suggested using the Dimensional Nexus to go out and recruit people. He was the one that decided where to send us. So it was a bit of a surprise when we discovered who we were recruiting.

I went out on the first mission with Anatos and Neko, and as it turns out, Tech's ability to place the portals at ground level needed some work.

The three of us fell a good two feet before hitting the deck of a ship.

"Oy Oy! What are you lot doing on our ship?" I turned to the familiar voice and recognized Zoro standing in the doorway. His tall physique, short green hair, and muscular body imposing in the sunlight. I blinked as if seeing a ghost. He had been with us in that attack, I was sure he had been lost.

"Zoro?" I heard Neko ask up to him.

"Yeah, what are you? Bounty Hunters?" He had his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"You don't remember us?" I asked; he hesitated, trying to remember.

"Nothing comes to mind."

"Zoro! What did you do to such lovely ladies!" Sanji burst out from behind Zoro. Zoro immediately drew his blade to block a kick, and the two began tussling on the deck of the ship.

"So you know Zoro?" I turned and jumped as I spotted Luffy's smiling face as his neck stretched out to meet us.

"Gah! Luffy! Don't do that." He just began chuckling as his head returned to the rest of his body perched on a goat figurehead.

"So you are bounty hunters then."

"We're not, we just..." Neko clamped her hand over my mouth.

"We're just um... fellow pirates! Yeah. Our ship sank around here and we grabbed onto yours as it passed by, so sorry."

"Sounds like we're pretty famous if a bunch of pirates know our names." Usopp said also coming out from below decks, his elongated nose swaying in front of him.

"Well, we do get news about you guys from time to time." I said quickly.

"News from who?" Nami had now joined the deck crew.

"Uh..." I looked over to Neko who shrugged her shoulders back at me.

"The sea." Anatos said suddenly. The two of us turned to him; he was hanging half off the edge of the ship, staring out at the endless ocean.

"Makes sense." Luffy said turning around; although no one else on the ship seemed to think that way.

"If you're pirates, then I guess you're our enemies?" Zoro said.

"No-no! We don't want to fight!"

"We'd like to help if anything." I blurted out and was immediately faced with a bunch of suspicious looks.

"Zoro, take them down to the brig." Nami said coldly, the orange haired girl had apparently been listening the whole time.

"You mean the food cellar?"

"I wouldn't if I were you. Pah here would probably eat you out of house and home in seconds." Neko said.

"Right, tie them to the mast then." We chose not to resist as we were disarmed and tied up; Zoro seemed particular interested in my swords.

"Where did you get these?"

"An... old friend." He looked me over carefully then set the blades down gently against a wall. They then proceeded to try and discreetly talk about what to do with us, only to be foiled by Luffy very loudly saying he liked us, repeatedly. Finally Nami came back to us.

"Okay, we'll trust you for now; but we're going to hold onto your weapons and you're going to have to do some chores."

A day passed before I overheard Nami talking to Luffy about trying to cross Reverse Mountain; a very one-sided discussion. I later tried to catch her ear on the subject, but only got yelled at to work some more to pay off a debt I had somehow acquired, possibly when she had seen me in the food cellar.

"Why can't we just tell them the truth?" I asked Neko later as I helped clean the deck as best I could without touching the soapy water.

"We're from another dimension where we fought alongside them and left them to die. Do you honestly think they'd believe us? We need to befriend them first; rebuild the friendship, then when proof comes knocking we can tell them the truth."

"What do you mean proof?"

"There's supposed to be Solarus on this planet somewhere. These guys attract trouble, so it's just a matter of time before Solarus show up." I shuddered as I thought about Avarus' strike force, the Solarus. Hollow metal powered by the souls of the dead.

That was quickly driven from my mind as the ship was directed into an upstream that was headed up a mountain. Before I could even really comprehend how many ways this was bizarre the ship was caught in the current and flying straight up the mountain side. Soon enough we crested the top, our momentum carrying us a good extra foot into the air before we began free falling down the other side.

I lost my grip and fell, skimming along the water until I crashed beneath the waves.

When I woke up, Anatos had pulled me to land and was slowly resuscitating me.

"Ah, good you're awake. The others are in that whale." Anatos said bluntly.

"What!" I looked up to see an enormous whale's head sticking straight out of the water and consuming most of the horizon.

"Yep, they were eaten, except Luffy who was climbing around on top of the whale. I didn't see him underwater, so I guess he's inside the whale too."

"We better get them out!" I said, getting up.

"I'm sure Neko will find a way out." Anatos remarked. "Beside, what do you think she'd say if you killed that whale while trying to free them?"

"Free food?" Anatos smacked the back of my head.

"We're not eating him!" As he was yelling the ship came floating out of the whale's mouth. With everyone settled on land, an old man that had been inside the whale explained the whale was the pet of another group of pirates that had most likely died. He gave Nami something called a log pose which would allow her to navigate the Grand Line; and Luffy subsequently agreed to take two people they had met inside the whale back to their hometown. One was a blue haired young woman named Miss Wednesday, and the other was an orange haired young man who called himself Mr. 9.

This trip was more peaceful than getting to Reverse Mountain. With two people on board that the crew trusted even less than us, we got a free pass from everything except chores.

When we arrived at the next island, we were greeted with a celebration. The others were rapidly caught up in the entertainment, but I had caught sight of the resident's weapons. Solarus machine guns. I chose to stay on the ship and as night fell I heard people surrounding the ship.

"There's one on board! Make sure to take her out first." I climbed out, allowing them to begin taking aim before I launched myself towards them. Their bullets melted as I moved past them, and with a couple of quick punches they were scurrying away from me.

"Pah!" I heard Neko yell down to me from the roof of one of the buildings. "Solarus! They're coming from the south!"

"I need to get my swords from Zoro!" I yelled back, as I pressed on.

Zoro was already knee deep in fighting; but he spotted me approaching and grinned.

"I want to see what you can do." He said over the dull roar around us as he pulled the two blades from his belt and tossed them over to me. I carefully caught them and spun, giving myself some room to move. The people were gathering along the rooftops, leveling the machine guns.

"Careful, those bullets drain your strength if they get too close."

"Sounds nasty. Can't say I'm not impressed at how fast they can fire though."

"It looks like our enemy is helping out your enemies."

"Interesting." He leapt easily to a rooftop, cutting apart a group of people clustered there. I went for another roof, and sliced into the base with my red blade, Inferno, the building caught almost instantly; causing my opponents to flee screaming into the night.

I heard screaming and explosions coming from the village. When I arrived I saw Luffy and Zoro fighting each other furiously.

"There! Pahhur! You agree, they were our enemies right!" Zoro called over to me.

"Y-Yeah. I was helping you guys fight them off." Luffy turned his glare towards me.

"You helped!" Before I knew what was going on I felt his hands clamp onto my head, then I was spinning through the air before hitting the ground head first.

**Neko**

After Pah was knocked out, I had to wait patiently for Luffy to calm down; and instead sat with Nami, who was also watching.

"So you guys are fruit-users?" She asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Well she was setting fire to stuff with just her sword, and I saw you change shape as you got here."

"Fruit-Users?"

"You know, the Devil's Fruit?" I vaguely recalled someone talking about that sometime ago.

"Uh, sure. Yeah, we're fruit-users."

"Odd. I thought the Fire fruit was already in use by Fire-Fist Ace." She said coldly. I could tell by the look on her face I had just walked into her trap.

"... Alright. You caught me, we're not from this world." Her face was a cold mask as I tried to explain.

"The short version is, we're here from another dimension. Our enemy Avarus is incredibly powerful, and the guns these guys have seem to have been supplied by him, as well as the Solarus Anatos and I fought in the south. We're here to get help fighting Avarus, and we fought alongside an alternate version of you guys that didn't make it out alive."

"If that's your story, fine. I still don't buy it." I nodded.

"That's kinda why I didn't want to tell you; but whatever. We're here to help out, okay?"

"Right, well you guys haven't been attacking us, so I believe that. Well, you better pick up Pah. I'll get those guys to stop fighting." As I went down to pick up Pah, I heard Tech come in over the communicator embedded in our suits.

"Neko? You guys are done there for now."

"But I don't think we even have their trust."

"Neko, I know it's been like a week for you guys there, but it's been over a month here. We can't afford to waste our resources in one spot for too long. I'll send you guys back later. There's still plenty of time. But we need to focus our attention elsewhere, plus that last blow to Pah's head looks pretty severe; she's going to need to be treated. I'm going to open a portal near the center of town, grab Pah and Anatos bring 'em in." I turned to Nami.

"We're going to have to head back for a while! We'll be back soon!" I called over to her and sped off to grab Pah.


	2. Chapter 2

**Pahhur**

"So explain this to me Tech." Neko and I had gone back to Tech after I woke up.

"It's a little complicated, but it has to do with time-lines. Let's make this fairly simple. Let's say the Luffy we know comes from Time-line A; where Avarus destroyed his world and threw the people there into the compounded new world. Where you just went would be Time-line B; where those events either haven't happened or will not happen. Just by entering that time-line you have created a new path, basically Time-line C. Now I'll try to keep our portals keyed to the new time-line, but I can't promise anything yet. My powers allow me control over dimensional travel, but very little control over time; at least until I can get the computer to run more smoothly."

"So basically there's three Luffys now." I said, trying to grasp what was going on.

"No, there are millions of Luffys, you just interacted with one of... Yes, there are three Luffys."

"Which means we could triple our numbers!"

"No Pah. It doesn't work like that. In most cases, time-lines aren't supposed to touch each other. When they do, a sense of uneasiness fills all affected people. Avarus capitalizes on this, and can transform it into blood-thirst. I assume he has already done so with the people he captured. We should just keep ourselves to the time-lines we interact with, to keep him from gaining more shadows."

"You're basically saying its already too late to save the others."

"It is consistent with the data I have on Avarus. Usually he has shadow versions of each new God within a few hours or the ritual's completion. He didn't even have to hunt for bodies this time. No, instead we should focus on what we can do. Reinforce our own troop size, gather more resources, and try to stop Avarus on any front he opens. Speaking of." Tech turned to his computer system. "I'm planning on sending the next group out, my new scanners have picked up Solarus in at least three different worlds. You three should go rest though."

"I'm fine to go back out." I said.

"Pah, you were knocked unconscious for over a day."

"Yeah, and I've eaten since then. So I'm ready for another trip." Tech just shook his head. "Alright." He hit his comm system. "Jato, expect to have Pah come along as well." Tech punched a few keys into the computer as jato came in accompanied by Seth and Asuka. "Good luck!"

I looked around me carefully as I stood in an overwhelmingly white place. The sidewalks and walls were all the purest white color; yet nature was everywhere, creating a stark contrast. People were meandering around, only a very sparse few were human. Next to us was a green bug-like thing working on a console.

"Uh excuse me." Jato reached out to get the thing's attention when a voice picked up from behind us.

"Please do not bother the Keepers. They keep this Citadel safe for all of us." I turned to see a 'woman' standing behind us, though I could see through her purple skin to the statue behind her.

"Uh sorry. Where are we?" Jato asked.

"This is the Presidium, human embassies are in the east wing. Do you have an appointment?"

"N-not really no."

"Please present visitor registration."

"Uh, you guys ready to run for it?" Jato turned back to us.

"We're just a little lost, could you direct us to the um..." I stammered on the last bit when a tall creature approached us.

"Is there a problem here?" It looks like a cross between a bird and an insect, especially due to the very slight metallic look of its skin. It tapped a large gun in one hand impatiently.

"Uh no, who are you by the way?"

"C-Sec. If you don't have a pass to be up here you will have to go back to the Wards."

"We're..."

"We're human ambassadors." Asuka said suddenly, stepping forward.

"You're not dressed like..."

"We're disguised, it's not been a safe trip."

"Then shouldn't you be over at the human embassy?"

"Like I said, we're lost." I chipped in.

"Right, well I assume you're here to assist with the Saren trial?"

"The... Yes, that!" Jato said nodding.

"I'll show you to the embassy; but you better have more evidence than what your Commander provided to implicate a Spectre."

As we were marched to the embassy, we entered a room where an older looking man stood, looking over the presidium. His white suit matched the surroundings perfectly.

"Sir, a group of Ambassadors to assist in the Spectre case."

"I didn't..." He turned to look at us. "Who are you?"

"Jato, sir. We're here representing a uh... colony. We could use your help."

"Why weren't these people taken to external affairs? Security!" Not long after, we were dropped off in a place called the Wards.

I sighed and slumped into a bench. Before me was a miraculous sight, I could see the depths of space, and just across was another arm of this massive space station. People were living up and down this thing.

"Well great. Maybe we need to change tactics." Jato said.

"Yeah, I don't think people will be too keen on helping us, when they have their own problems to deal with." Seth said, sitting next to me.

"Why don't we help them out. See things through, and then when the problems are dealt with they'll probably willingly help us." I said, sitting up.

"They were talking about a trial against someone..." Seth said.

"Saren." Asuka confirmed. "Maybe if we help with the proceedings, we can get assistance for our own problems."

"Hey, you lot looking for Saren?" I saw a tall man, standing in a nearby corridor, shrouded in black armor.

"Yeah, do you know anything?"

"I know where you might be able to get the information, a Quarian girl has it, but she's hording it away. So you'd probably have to use force to get it back."

"We do need that data." Seth said.

"Can you tell us where we can find her?" Jato asked.

"She'll be in the back ally over there in... about an hour or so. A few associates are also heading there to help procure the information."

"Thank you, you can count on us." I said. "Come on guys! I wanna check out what this place offers in the way of food!"

Unfortunately, the Citadel relied on an electronic currency, and so I had to go hungry as we set up in the back ally to wait.

Not too long afterward, a couple men in black and white armor showed up, nodded to us, and walked to the other side of the hall. A little while later a girl showed up, locked in a suit from head to toe. I couldn't even see her face due to the mask.

"Do you have the data?"

"Where's the Shadow Broker? I asked to see him in person."

"He won't come, give us the data." They were drawing guns, but she was faster. She threw a grenade, causing a small explosion; I was up and moving.

"Hey we really need that data!" I yelled, running through the fire after her; only to be met by a few bullets. A woman accompanied by a pair of aliens rounded the corner and was firing liberally on everyone in the hall. The quarian girl had ducked for cover, but the two men weren't so lucky. The bullets were exploding around me, so I chose to charge forward, as I closed the distance, the larger creature next to the woman slammed into me, sending me sprawling down the stairs.

"Pah!" Jato yelled, and entered the hall. "Hold your fire! We're not here to hurt anyone!" He yelled, arms out. The woman ceased fire, and looked over us.

"Cease fire. Garrus, check on the quarian."

"I'm fine. Thank you." She said, climbing out from behind some boxes in the corner.

"Do you know who these people are?"

"No."

"We're here to help." Jato said. "We're trying to get information to help with the trial. And... you're here doing just that, aren't you?" The woman nodded and walked down to him.

"Commander Shepard. You are?"

"Jato. Ambassador Jato."

"I... don't buy that."

"We're just from... a distant colony."

"Your friend charged a Krogan. I don't think you're any sort of politician."

"She's..." My head was throbbing as I got up. "I got nothing."

"What are those things made out of? Walls?" I complained as my head beat to my heart.

"Alright, so who are you guys, really?" Shepard asked.

"Let's just say... we're not from anywhere you would know about." Jato said.

"And you're just going to help? Why?"

"We... We need help in return. There's a very dangerous person, we can't beat him alone."

"Let's get this data to the Presidium. You go to my ship, we'll talk more there. Garrus, can you take them?"

"Yes sir!"

"So you're trying to tell me, you don't even know about space travel?" We were wandering the ship, Garrus was keeping an eye on us.

"We travel through portals. No ship involved." Seth said, poking at one of the consoles.

"Portals? You mean to travel from the surface to anywhere else, instantaneously?"

"That's pretty much it." I said.

"Beats the hell out of the relays. About how close to your mark can you hit?"

"Well, Tech know all the details, but right now I'm not convinced he's not sending us off at random." The comm system came on.

"Commander Shepard has come aboard." We headed out to see her returning with the quarian and krogan behind her.

"Joker, get ready to leave. We're heading after Saren."

"Wait, you put the guy on trial... and he wasn't even there?" Jato said.

"He was in communication, but the Council saw him as guilty. I was promoted to Spectre status, and given command of this ship to go bring him to justice."

"I guess we can stick around." Jato said. "If you'll have us."

"The help will be appreciated; but you guys will have to come clean. Where do you come from?"

"Do you guys know Dimensional Theory?" Jato asked.

"Yes. Oh."

"Alright, that's cleared up, let's go!" Pah said, running over to a window.


	3. Chapter 3

**Pahhur**

"So you're telling me, you're from another dimension, another reality?" Garrus asked as he paced around the shuttle bay.

"Yeah, I came from an Earth just entering the 20th century." I said, as I tapped at a giant machine that filled up a large portion of the bay.

"That means you're from... over a hundred years ago." A young woman said, I tried to recall her name.

"That's impossible Ash. We can't even dream of that technology now." Another man said, I recognized him as part of Shepard's officers.

"You're right Kaiden, but our world was destroyed. We got pulled into a war." Jato said.

"So why are you guys here then? Don't you have a war to be fighting?" Wrex said from his wall.

"We need help. We're here trying to recruit."

"Typical human. Can't stand on their own two feet."

"I'd go another round with you if you want!" I said, glaring over at Wrex. He just smiled over at me.

"And you'd wind up on your back twice as quickly. When you charge, you gotta put your back into it."

"Still, Wrex is right, we can't help you. We've got our own problems to deal with." Kaiden said.

"That's why we came up with a new plan. We'll help you guys out, and in no time you'll be free to help us." I said.

"Cut the chatter, we think we've found her on Therum. Kaiden, Tali you're with me." Shepard began barking orders as she stormed out the elevator towards the tank.

"Wait what about us?"

"The Mako only holds three people. Unless you have another way to enter the atmosphere, I'm going to go with people I trust."

"How are you going to drop the Mako?" Seth asked.

"Typically we go into low orbit and drop from a few hundred kilometers."

"I can survive that, easily." I said. Seth just sighed.

"If it's alright, we could probably just ride the Mako down." Jato said. Shepard shook her head.

"I'm not letting anyone do something that stupid on my ship. Look, we can squeeze one more person into the Mako. Seth seems like he'd be a big help." As the four of them loaded into the tank, the cabin doors opened, letting in a harsh hot breeze.

"Pah no!" I ran after the tank and leapt out into space; only vaguely hearing the other two following after. Jato caught up with me and appeared to be trying to yell over the wind. I focused my energy a little and began a steady stream of fire beneath myself, slowing my fall. Asuka seemed to have passed by both of us and was already preparing to land; Jato just grabbed onto me as I passed by.

"Congratulations. Now, I'd like to know how you plan on getting the hell back up onto the ship." Shepard was yelling as she walked over to us. The ground was red and heated, obviously volcanic as there were pools of magma lying around.

"I... hmmm..."

"Exactly, now if you're going to help us, remember to listen when I tell you something." She seemed ready to continue, but a bullet clipped past us.

"Geth! Get in the Mako guys!" She ran back into the tank but Seth stayed out. He leveled his gun and took a few shots into the distance. I heard metal hitting metal and a husk hit the ground. The Mako began driving off towards where our attacker had been, and the rest of us climbed on top.

"Jato, come in Jato?"

"Tech?" Jato said, touching the communicator.

"Ah good, you guys cut out for a little while. What's your status?"

"The people here seem to be having some political turmoil. We're helping them out for now."

"Alright, well I'll want you guys back here soon. I'll try to lock in on the time-line but we've got to try and find some real help."

"Well that works out, we're going to need help getting off this planet."

"Let's finish helping out here, we'll contact you when our job here is done."

The main gun began firing, and I turned to see what at. There were a bunch of large turrets firing on us, in the turmoil I was jostled off. Shepard rolled open one of the windows as the tank took cover behind a rock.

"We're going to try and find a way around! Hang on, this might get a little bumpy!" Jato also got off at that point, followed by Asuka and Seth.

"We'll draw their fire. Come on, let's hit the front gates." I got up and followed after the others.

The turrets were persistent in firing missiles at us, we were far nimbler than that and easily slipped past. With a few quick shots Seth took out one, while Asuka and I closed distance and finished off the other two. Jato then reached the door and with a burst of strength busted a hole in it; giving us access to a courtyard filled with machines. We took cover as a volley of bullets came through the new opening.

"Okay, not my brightest plan, Seth can you do anything?" Seth was just holding at one side of the entrance, his eyes closed.

"I can get a shield up for a little while." Asuka said, holding out her orb. Seth moved very suddenly and quickly, firing off two shots before returning to cover and reloading his guns. I heard to bodies hit the ground.

"Let's go, draw some fire away from Seth and try to close distance." Jato said, nodding to Asuka who lit up her orb, forming a bubble in front of us. We piled through the small opening and charged before splitting off to the nearby cover.

"Alright, this is starting to annoy me, these bullets shouldn't even affect us; it's not like we're fighting Solarus. Even then there's too few." I said to Jato nearby.

"Right, but I'd rather we not waste energy unnecessarily. We might need it later." I lifted a hand out of cover, and felt a bit of molten lead hit me; I also, however, felt the drain on my energy.

"What's wrong?" Jato asked.

"My energy... Those bullets are more potent than what the Solarus were using."

"Great, now we need to destroy these things." Jato said. "Be careful. But try to get in close." He slinked off behind a few boxes, but even as he did I heard rockets crash into the ground ahead of us. I poked my head up and saw the Mako entering from the mountains, raining rockets into the mass of confused machine. In a few seconds the area was cleared and Shepard got out.

"That could have gone much worse without the distraction, thank you."

"You're welcome, what were those things?" Jato asked.

"Geth, we don't know much. Only that they haven't been seen in a long time, and have only recently begun to attack human settlements."

"Right, so where do we go from here?" I asked. Shepard pointed to the opposite gate; and a few minutes later we were on our way; until the mountain's paths became too rough for the Mako. We proceeded on foot for a while, dealing with a few Geth encampments before we found the entrance to the mining facility; and a really really big Geth.

"So, how do we take this thing down?" I asked from behind cover.

"Bug bites." Shepard said, moving to take a few shots. "Eventually we'll wear it out." Asuka seemed to scoff at this idea and drew out her orb; forming a sword.

"I'll take care of the big thing, just keep the little guys off my back." She said before charging out of cover, sword drawn. She dashed past the machine gun fire and leapt over the larger energy charge the creature emitted before coming in close. She ran up one of its legs and ducked as it tried to knock her off. A few seconds later she was on the creature's back and with a single stroke stuck her sword through the back of the Geth's head. The machine seemed to bubble up for a bit before exploding in a spray of metal and bolts.

With a couple more shots the last Geth fell and the path was clear to enter the facility.

"Looks like the place is pretty badly damaged Commander." Kaiden said, looking over the rubble.

"Try to find Dr. T'Soni."

"Asuka and I will cover the entrance, we'll make sure no more Geth get in." Jato said.

We had to clear out a few more Geth as we went down, but we did eventually run across a blue alien, locked inside some form of force field.

"Oh thank the Goddess. I was afraid no one would come."

"Dr. T'Soni I presume?" Shepard asked.

"Yes. And you are?"

"Commander Shepard. Can you get out of there?"

"No, I put up the barrier when the attack began, but I must have touched something I shouldn't have; now I'm trapped in here."

"Alright, we'll find a way through."

"Be careful, I saw a krogan leading the Geth around here." We took an elevator down to the lowest floor, and cleared a few Geth out in the process. The debris on the ground made for perfect cover and allowed me to clean out the ones that the others didn't manage to gun down.

"I'm starting to feel undervalued here." I muttered as Shepard turned on a mining laser to cut through the rock.

"Swords have been out of date for quite sometime." Tali said, casually as she connected another elevator.

"Yeah but... I..."

"It's alright Pah, when we need close combat, we'll let you know." Seth said as the elevator stopped on the same floor as T'Soni. Shepard freed her.

"How did you get past the barriers?"

"We used a mining laser to cut our way in."

"Amazing I..." There was a sudden rumbling from below. "You must have destabilized the mountain. It's going to erupt!"

"Let's get out of here!" Shepard said, running back to the elevator and flipping a few switches. As we reached the top floor we were greeted by a krogan and a group of Geth.

"Give us the girl!" The krogan yelled down to us.

"Get out of here this place is falling apart!" Shepard yelled back.

"I know, makes this interesting doesn't it? Get them!" The Geth moved to attack on his command, I drew my sword.

"I'll take the krogan, just keep me clear of the Geth!" I yelled as I charged. The krogan saw my charge and moved to match it.

We collided, but neither one of us fell. I moved to swing, but he fired his shotgun; forcing me to dodge away. He pressed his attack, as I just tried to avoid as many bullets as I could. Finally he landed a full hit to my leg, surprisingly not only did the bullets drain my strength, but the cut right through and took a large chunk of my leg with them. I fell to one knee; and he approached, grinning. I waited for him to lower the shotgun barrel at my head and swung with both blades, cutting his gun into pieces as well as shredding his armor. He retaliated by bashing his head against mine. I was almost immediately dizzy. He landed a second blow, sending my sprawling against the ground.

"Amazing! You don't bleed!" He was grinning as he lifted me up by the scruff, but this time I was ready. I held out my palm, energy already gathered, and unloaded a full fireball into his face. He screamed in pain and began patting away the flames. I took the opportunity to grab one of my swords and stab him through the head, then I did it again, just to make sure. As I finished I saw Shepard watching, an amused look on her face. Jato came rushing in with Asuka.

"The Normandy's right outside! You guys better get going."

"What about you?"

"Tech's gonna open a portal here, and get us out."

"But the volcano?"

"We'll let Pah go last, she might get some benefit out of the lava." Jato said, as sure enough a portal opened up in the center of the room.

I did in fact stay behind a little while longer, and soaked up the lava that flowed through the open portal, much to Tech's dismay.

"Tech, we need to talk." Jato said as Tech entered to pull me away from the gushing portal.

"Alright, just can we get Pah out? She's leaving a mess."

"Pah, come on, we'll get you healed up. Now, Tech we need to change our mission specs. We can't go looking for warriors and expect them to not be doing something."

"Good point." Tech said, as I followed them to what I assumed was going to be the medical facility. "What would you suggest?"

"Well, I think we should go to help people. Avarus is gaining strength everywhere that there is selfish desire present. By stopping that, and solving problems we kill two birds with one stone. We limit his energy source and gain new allies who owe us."

"We still need help to do that effectively. We also can't be sitting on a single planet trying to get help from one group."

"Right, Avarus is probably being very active out there, so we'd have to keep moving. A month to two months seems to work well so far."

"Okay. I'll talk to the others and see what they think. But for now, why don't you guys get some rest?"

"Alright, I'll give you the briefing later."


	4. Chapter 4

**Metudo**

"Okay, remember. We're here to help people." I said as Pah and Zephos began looking around the new world. It appeared to be a late 19th century Earth, and a little distance away I could see a street with people meandering along.

"Bet you I can find someone in trouble first." Pah said suddenly.

"No, wait!" I began.

"You're on!" Zephos yelled over me, and despite my calls the two were already off. I cursed my luck at having been stuck with these two. I sighed and set my uniform to somewhat copy the garb of a passerby. One with a thankfully large hat so I could hide my hair.

I began hunting for a governmental building. If this was a time of peace, we might still be able to ask for some resources; but I was halted by what sounded like a child screaming for help. I turned a few streets and saw a small girl being chased by a flock of birds. However, more disturbing was the metallic sound I was hearing within.

"Get away from her!" I heard a familiar voice yell and a black haired boy leapt down from a rooftop, scooping up the girl. I heard guns being cocked, and instinctively formed a barrier between the birds and the people. The birds broke formation around the barrier, and continued pursuit, but the bullets were definitely stopped. The Solarus were now visible and I launched an attack.

In a few seconds my barriers had sliced the small troop of Solarus to pieces, I turned to try and find the young man, he was fighting off two half-bird, half-humans but I recognized his fighting style.

"Ranma!" I couldn't help but blurt. He was only distracted for a second before tossing the girl over to me a few seconds before Ryoga appeared and was dragged into the fight. It soon began to rain, the bird-men became human and Ranma and Ryoga also transformed. Ranma placed a final beating on the two attackers before asking me to come along.

I was taken to a place called the Cat Cafe, inside I saw Pah and Zephos tied up in a corner sporting some lumps.

"What happened?" I said, moving to untie them when Cologne stopped me.

"I found these two fighting outside and stopped them before they damaged the shop." She turned to Ranma. "Son-In-Law, who are these people you've brought along this time?"

"Dunno. He knew my name, so I figured he had to be involved in whatever was going on." Ryoga emerged from the back room, clothed and human.

"Well, everyone is here, and it sounds like trouble is brewing again." Cologne said and looked to the girl. The girl, Plum, began to explain that she was from Jusenkyo, and came with a warning that Jusenkyo was in danger. She had a map that the bird-creatures were after, and if they got it Jusenkyo would dry up. Pah and Zephos were now untied and occupied with a few bowls of ramen when questions turned to us.

"So how do you lot figure into this?" Ranma asked.

"Loosely." I started. "We're travelers, righting wrongs where we find them."

"And you know me... how?"

"Word... Gets around." The room was giving me a stare of disbelief.

"What is important is that a great evil is apparently helping those bird-men. The empty armor, Solarus, are a hallmark of one of the greatest threats we know of."

"The walking dead." Cologne said, and hopped into her back room.

"You know something old hag?" Ranma said as she returned with an old book.

"I make it my business to know things Son-In-Law. Here, Solarus. Souls attached through black magic to armor, harbingers of the apocalypse."

"That's... where did you get that?" I asked.

"Old books, often hold deep dark truths. This legend eventually became something else, but the older texts were preserved. That means dark times are upon us."

"So what can you tell us about these bird-people. It seems the Solarus are working for them at the moment." Ranma said, turning back to Cologne.

"They could be from Mt. Phoenix. At the peak of a mountain there is a cursed spring. The people in the village below have used that spring as a source of water for generations and as such have grown wings in the recent years."

"Hey Plum, why are they trying to dry up Jusenkyo?"

"No idea, left home before I found out."

"Feh. It doesn't matter." Ryoga said.

"You got a plan Ryoga?" Ranma asked.

"It doesn't matter what they are or why they're here, we just need to beat some sense into them and send them on their way." He turned suddenly. "Trying to sneak up on us!" He threw his umbrella into one of the wall panels, destroying it.

"We're over here. Idiot." Across the room the two bird-men entered through the front door. Two women entered behind them, the first was half-bird with white wings, the second was a little more recognizable.

"Nabiki?" Ranma asked as she waltz into the room. I recognized her too, but she seemed different. Aside from her clothing that looked very different, pitch black leather and gold straps. She carried herself with almost a more vicious quality.

"I had hoped my first assignment would be to see our copies." She said, then paused. "I would prefer if you called me by my proper name though Ranma. Address me as Yoku, or Mistress if you'd like." As she spoke she sat in a chair and watched us.

"Careful, I recognize those marks. She's a shadow." Pah said as she moved to put herself between Yoku and the rest of us.

"Perceptive, I hope you know the situation then. At least, what we think about you." Yoku said. "It doesn't matter, I'll get to personal vendettas later. For now I have a planet to bring under control." She turned to the other woman. "Do what you need to."

"Yes Ma'am." In a blur the fight broke out, I looked around and spotted Yoku leaving. I followed her to an alley outside.

"Persistent aren't you." She turned to me.

"I'm sorry for what Avarus has done, but there has to still be a way to..."

"You can't understand. Metudo. There is a need, something none of us can fight. I respect your decision on that planet, I understand it. Others do not. But that does not change the fact that we work for Avarus now. Many of us willingly. Take this as a warning and leave. Perhaps you can save yourselves again."

"You're going after the Nabiki in this world."

"Yes. Only then will I have peace."

"I don't care what Avarus is capable of, you cannot convince me that he could make someone like you a physical threat. I will not let you take her life." She sighed as I stood in her way.

"You underestimate Avarus. I guess one more warning is in order." She gripped a small piece of metal situated on her shoulder and as she pulled at it it became a blade. With a breath she closed the gap between us, I barely blocked her blow with my own cane. "Avarus allows his subordinates to realize their full potential. Something none of you could hope to do." She swung, I barely blocked the blow.

"I understand." I gave up then. Nabiki wasn't in front of me, Nabiki was a few yards away, safe in her house. I allowed power to flow back into my weapon and pushed back. She just grinned at me and began a blinding offensive. I followed step as best I could, but in a quick feint she managed to slice my leg. I fell on the suddenly useless limb.

"It's getting late. I guess I won't be killing my copy tonight." She vanished into the night, and I spotted the bird-creatures fleeing a few seconds later.

"So what happened then?" Ranma asked as Cologne and Shampoo worked on my leg.

"We lost. It was either run or die. We ran." I said as the last bandage was wrapped up.

"It sounds like things are far worse than I expected." Cologne said. "I would get the others, we may need the extra strength. It also sounds like we're going to have to go to the source." Ranma nodded.

"I'll go get my Pops and get packed. Keep these guys and Ryoga here. You might need the extra protection."

"Cologne, you wouldn't happen to have more text regarding Avarus?"I asked, testing my leg. It throbbed weakly.

"A little here and there. You are talking about a very old topic."

"I get the feeling he's a very old person."

"Stories attach him or his minions to many of the greater evils, if we're locked in combat with him, defeat may be the greater part of valor."

"I hurt him though." Pah said, drawing her sword. "With this. I even got the power of Immortality back from him."

"The Dragonsbane!" Cologne leapt up to look closer. "Why don't you tell me again why you are out here in dangerous waters?"

"To help people, get resources, and people to fight alongside us." Pah said proudly. Cologne just smiled.

"Your leader is quite bright. I would like to talk with him sometime." Cologne said. "I think I hear the others returning."

Soon Ranma entered, followed by his father. Mousse and Ukyo showed up as well.

"Where's Akane? We could definitely use her strength in this." Pah said.

"I told her to stay behind." Ranma said.

"But..."

"I heard how you guys roll. I'm not convinced you know what you're doing. It's too dangerous, I'd really even rather Shampoo and Ukyo stay behind."

"Where is Shampoo anyway?" Ryoga asked.

"She might be in trouble, we'd better go looking for her. Ryoga, you stay here with the old hag." Ranma said as he got up. "The rest of you guys, split up and find her."


	5. Chapter 5

**Metudo**

"Shampoo! Shampoo!" The dark streets were so unfamiliar as I raced around in the humid night. It felt like it wanted to rain, but then it had been like that all day. I heard a rustling sound from behind and turned to see Zephos wander out of the bushes.

"Have you found her yet?"

"Nope. Just some eggs."

"Eggs?" He opened his palm and as I moved towards him he tossed the batch at me. They cracked open in the air and released long gooey strings, which latched onto me immediately. As I struggled with the strands Zephos ruffled through my pockets, grabbing my piece of the map before bolting away.

The strands began to envelop me, eventually blocking out my vision. I could feel something trying to penetrate my mind; to affect my thoughts. I quickly fought back, and as I pushed against the invading force, I felt the strands surrounding me crack. With a second push the walls shattered and I was back on the streets again.

"Metudo!" Pah landed next to me.

"Zephos has turned evil! He even stole my dumpling!"

"You got dumplings?"

"Cologne gave it to me."

"What about the map piece?"

"Oh, I left that back at the cafe." I sighed and led Pah off in the direction I remembered Zephos going.

"We gotta get to him before he leaves with those freaks!" I yelled back to Pah.

"Right! Otherwise he might eat it!" I chose to ignore Pah and focus on locating Zephos. My search led me to a park where a small fight had broken out between Ranma, Akane and Shampoo. Zephos was hovering nearby, his map pieces already in the hands of the enemy. I quickly focused on his mind, trying to force my will over his.

He reacted immediately, sinking to the ground and clutching his head. I could feel the foreign presence and tried to remove it. However my concentration was broken by one of the bird-men attacking me. Pah launched herself over the onslaught and charged towards Zephos, who was quickly regaining control. She tackled him to the ground and tussled with him while the birds fled the scene.

The further the bird-people got, the more violent Zephos became. I quickly saw Pah was going to lose, he face already showing some sealed cuts from him clawing at her. The moment he broke free I created a bubble around him. He bounced off of it, confused at first, then enraged. Finally as he exhausted his energy, he began pacing the rim of his new cage. We regrouped and tried to assess the damages of the night.

–

I laid down on the cheap mattress Cologne provided. Zephos was pacing the other side of the room. I had spent all night trying to fix whatever I had done to him, but I couldn't even penetrate his mind now. I didn't know if it was because of my own exhaustion or if it was his own mental defenses. Pah and Ryoga were snoring loudly to either side of me, everyone else had gone home to sleep and pack. The enemy had the map, and we were heading after them tomorrow. I sighed as I stretched out on the unfamiliar floor. I wondered how many more times I would have to sleep under an unfamiliar roof or sky. As I began drifting off I heard a loud thumping sound. I got up and saw Zephos slamming against the walls of the barrier. I shook myself awake and focused on keeping the barrier fresh. We couldn't get close enough to tie him, and he started using his wind powers; so anything conventional wouldn't hold for long. He had stopped again and was watching me, patiently.

"You little..." I walked over to the barrier, he just grinned up at me. "So, this is how it's going to be." I said, more to myself than to him. "Fine, but I'm getting some coffee." The thought that I actually could get coffee elated me as I stumbled down the stairs, carefully keeping a part of my mind on the barrier. Cologne was already in the kitchen brewing as I walked in.

"Sorry, is this a bad time?"

"No, I heard the boy trying to get out. I thought you might need a little extra energy." As she spoke she poured a golden-brown liquid into a small cup and handed it to me. The smell wasn't the most pleasant thing, but more importantly, it wasn't coffee.

"Try it before you turn it down. That's an old Amazon brew, designed to improve mental health." I sighed and sat down, sipping the brew tentatively.

"Alright, but my next cup is coffee." She smiled over at me and began getting the beans ready.

"I have to admit, I'm a little surprised that your people would come to a place like this."

"We need resources. Normal things. Food, water, weapons... Coffee."

"Yes, but historically the Gods found powerful worlds, places where magic or science were highly evolved."

"Actually we call ourselves Warriors now." I said before finishing off my cup.

"I see. So, why did you come here?" She said as she filled me cup and poured herself one.

"Well... We met you guys before. That's why Nab- I mean Yoku appeared. She was Nabiki once, we didn't exactly win that fight."

"So you met us in another time-line, and you've come here for... Sentimental reasons?"

"I... I guess."

"Sounds like you're swindling your resources."

"That's what I said, but Pah was insistent. And she can get... pushy."

"You should probably take Zephos and leave here. Go back to your hidden castle."

"I can't. You guy'll be destroyed."

"If you stay here it's likely you'll lose again. We can afford to die. We cannot afford to lose the Dragonsbane again." I shook my head and downed m coffee. "Think on it. I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to do so tonight. But do not come with us tomorrow. We will deal with our own battle."

–

Morning came, eventually. I spent most of the night watching Zephos, he returned to pacing when it became apparent that I wasn't going to sleep. As Pah sat up, stretching I turned to her.

"We're leaving."

"What!" She jumped up.

"I'm going to tell Tech to open up a portal. We need to leave, Yoku is too strong for you to fight and both me and Zephos are out of the fight."

"I'm not leaving."

"Pah. Don't make me force this issue again."

"You can go. Run away with yer tail between yer legs. I'm staying."

"Pah."

"And that's final." She stormed out of the room, waking Ryoga in the process.

**Pahhur**

I'm sick and tired of Metudo, and Jato, and everyone else running away when things look bad. I needed to vent so I stormed down and saw Ranma had already arrived. He moved out of the way as I sat down in an empty chair nearby.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. Are you ready to go?"

"Pretty much, Pops in the kitchen and Ukyo should be here any minute. We're just waiting for Ryoga now; assuming he didn't get lost in the room."

"Oh ha ha Ranma! I can at least find a door!" Ryoga yelled as he stormed out of the room.

"I see you're here to see us off?" Cologne said as she came out with a platter of breakfast foods. I greedily began eating.

"What're you talking about?" I asked around a mouthful of food.

"I just assumed with Metudo exhausted and Zephos in need of treatment, you would be leaving."

"Those two can do what they want. But I'm here to help you guys; and that's what I'm going to do."


	6. Chapter 6

**Pahhur**

That evening saw the group gathered at the boats. The Tendo family had come to see us off. Metudo had gone back to base with Zephos and Ukyo had decided to stay behind, mostly to keep an eye on Nabiki, in case Yoko made an appearance. This just amplified the cold wind belting across my face as I looked out at the great blue sea.

A few minutes later the boat shook and capsized almost instantaneously. I just barely managed to find a chunk of driftwood to stand on while the others began paddling along the surface.

Despite my perch I got reasonably drenched, especially during a particularly rough storm. While my suit protected me from most of the damage, I still passed out somewhere in the middle and only woke to someone slapping my face repeatedly. I sputtered awake to see Ranma standing over me, the other cursed people were all nearby, trying to dry off.

"What happened back there?"

"Huh?" I shook a little at the sudden questioning. "Oh. Water... doesn't exactly agree with me. It drains my strength away pretty quickly."

"Sounds like you picked the wrong people to travel with." Ranma said as she finished drying her shirt. Ranma rented a bike and a cart from a nearby shop and we headed out towards Pheonix mountain; stopping only when we came across a hot spring. The cursed obviously wanted to get back their normal forms, so I hung out at the entrance with Plum.

"Pah?" I jumped a little at Tech's voice coming in over the communicator. I pushed down my armband to respond.

"What?"

"What the hell are you doing? Zephos is a wreck and you vanished for a while. Where the hell are you?"

"Somewhere in coastal China... I think."

"Hang on, I think I got a lock... Alright, I'll walk you to the nearest nexus so we can get you out of there."

"I'm not going back."

"... Alright. The nearest nexus is too far for us to send anyone. Good luck, and don't die."

"I don't plan to." With that the channel shut down.

"We have problem." Plum suddenly said running up to me. She pointed out some deep cracks in the ground and an unconscious employee.

"That... Can't be good." There were sounds of fighting coming from the spring, but with all that water moving around I decided to stay back and let Ranma handle it.

Soon enough he emerged with the others, leading a small child by a length of rope.

"So this is the hot spring demon?" Ranma asked as we surrounded the juvenile boy.

"Yeah, he's apparently been causing problems in this area for two or three days." Plum said. Without much thought Ranma tied the kid's foot to a tree branch and motioned for us to leave even as the kid was screaming after us.

"We need to go... I'm worried about Shampoo." Mousse said.

"Not to mention my dad... It'll take us two more days to get to Mount Phoenix at this rate." Plum said.

"Wait a second! You're going to Mount Phoenix?" The kid called after us.

"Yeah, so?" Ranma asked.

"If we use the Kinjakan, we'll be there by evening." Without a second thought Ranma untied the kid, who promptly picked up a weird staff. We tied everything together and piled into the cart and bike as the kid took off at high speed.

Sure enough as the sun began to set we arrived at the foot one of the taller mountains.

"Thanks kid." Ranma said as we started up a set of stairs built into the mountain. But as soon as we were inside the floor began to crumble under us, Mousse quickly threw a claw and gripped a hold of the kid's staff, dragging him down with us. The bird-people appeared suddenly as well and kicked the staff, and us down the hole, leaving the kid above.

Almost as soon as we hit bottom Ryoga started punching holes through the rock, mostly downward. After almost an hour of following him Mousse spoke up.

"This is where we started from!"

"Why are there so many tunnels down here?" Ryoga said, looking for the next place to punch a hole.

"It's because you're making the tunnels idiot!" Ranma yelled.

"We're in luck..." A struggling voice came from beneath us. We saw two of the bird men half-buried by rubble. They recovered quickly and launched an attack, demanding the Kinjakan. Ranma retaliated immediately by swinging the Kinjakan, the head came off and began bouncing off the tunnel walls, knocking out the two bird-men before swinging around back towards us. Everyone bolted, and I quickly fell under foot; thanks to Mousse. There was screaming ahead then silence for a moment.

I got up to see what was going on, Mousse was already investigating a deep hole that Ryoga fell into. Which turned out to be a dry well. Ranma suddenly surfaced from a pile of rubble, as Mousse pulled in the rope that held the pails.

Within a few minutes we were at the peak, in front of what we could only assume to be the bird-people's home. It only took us seconds to begin a full scale assault, the minions were small fries, and easy to knock aside as we stormed the halls searching for Shampoo and Plum's father.

We broke into a long bridge, heavily decorated in reds and golds, at the other end Kiima was waiting for us.

"Didn't we kill you?"

"We got better. Shampoo, and the map, now!" Ranma said.

"You're bravado accomplishes nothing save sparing me the trouble of searching for the Kinjakan!" Kiima yelled as she readied her attack. "Thousand Wing Slice!" She unleashed a wave of air blades, which Ranma promptly blocked with the Kinjakan; before retaliating and sending the top part of the staff through the floor, collapsing the bridge under us. I grabbed hold of the rock face as Ranma dragged the battle to the opposite cliff.

It wasn't long before he took the fight to her, and in the process damaged the rock I was holding onto.

"Gah!" With the rock above me, I hit Kiima and sent both of us tumbling down, where we further collided with the two bird-men that were emerging from the tunnels. Somewhere in the fall Kiima and the other two got out and flew off, leaving me to tumble the rest of the way down the mountain.

I shook myself as I crawled out of the rubble. Only to get a few meters before Ranma landed on top of me.

"uggg.." I woke some time later, as the others began getting up.

"Hey... Wait a sec." Ranma said, rolling off of me. I chose not to move any longer. Even as they broke camp. "If we have to go to the source of Jusenkyo Then we'll be passing by the cursed training grounds... We can go to the Nannichuan and be whole men again!"

"Where's Ryoga?" I asked, as I sat up finally. My back protesting the motion. Genma, in panda form began writing on his signs.

"Oh he... Took the Kinjakan to get some food." There was a deadly silence.

"You just let him go!" Ranma yelled as Genma backed away slowly. Ranma sighed and sat down.

"I guess we're waiting 'till Ryoga gets back." Mousse said.

"Hey, Pah."

"Hmm?"

"About this guy, Avarus. We've got a long time to wait. You might as well tell us what you know. We can fill in Ryoga when he gets back."

"Oh... Okay..." I sat down next to him. "I don't really know much, but I'll tell you what I can."

"You fought with him before right?"

"Just once. He's absurdly strong. I managed to hurt him, but according to the old man, he was only at half strength at the time. And I had a good fifty feet of free fall, plus I was rocketing towards him. He managed to stop me cold. I was just lucky enough to scrape him."

"And that woman. You called her a Shadow?"

"Yoku? Yeah, that was the price we paid to escape... I guess another version of you guys... Well you didn't make it. I'm guessing since Yoku showed up he chose to keep them alive, but I wouldn't call that living."

"So there's another me out there then?"

"Probably. What our sources say is that Avarus pulls out the full potential of his Shadows, so it would be you, but probably much stronger than you are now. Who know what else that process does to the mind... I know they aren't complete slaves, I fought my own shadow a while ago... He chose to let me live, somehow."

"Sounds like a bad situation... Listen. If we get through this mess... I... I dunno."

"It's alright. I'm not expecting anything. I'd rather just be able to live knowing you guys are okay. I don't think I could handle knowing we messed up twice..." He just grinned over to me as Ryoga rolled towards us.


	7. Chapter 7

**Pahhur**

Finally we were on the road again, our new destination, Jusenkyo.

"Damn, it's almost night already!" Ranma yelled, still bitching at Ryoga as we sped down the road wen all at once we came to a stop. "Akane!" Ryoga pushed past me.

"What!" She was collapsed in the middle of the road, Ranma quickly helped her up, but she passed out soon afterward. We quickly decided to stop at the nearest and cheapest hotel we could find.

"You were abducte and brought here?" Mousse asked.

"What about Ukyo? I thought she was keeping an eye on you guys." I asked.

"I'm not sure. All I remember is being abducted and waking up on the road." She said.

"Anyway, Akane... You stay here okay?" Ranma said.

"What? You mean I can't come with you?"

"No way!"

"But..."

"You'll just get in the way if you're around!"

"Ranma! Can't you think of anything nice to say to your fiance!" Genma yelled and landed on Ranma's head. Soon after the women took their baths and we went to bed. I woke to a small explosion coming from the other room and rushed out to find Ryoga and Mousse naked, with Ranma in female form and Kiima in the bathtub, all in an equal state of undress.

"Ha! The Kinjakan can now return to where it belongs!" Kiima gloated as she twirled the staff in her fingers.

"Kiima!" Ranma yelled. "What the hell is going on! Why did you look like Akane?"

"Simple. Jusenkyo's springs remember whatever drowned there last. So we... created a new spring."

"No way..."

"If I were you, I would go back to your pitiful homes and begin leaving. Once our task here is done, and the Pheonix King stands at Avarus' side, the springs will be the least of your concerns."

"If you think we're gonna leave. Think again!" Ranma moved to strike but dodged out of the way as Kiima launched a flurry of feathered blades and escaped out the window. We went to wake Plum, only to find her tied up.

"Akane took the map!" Without really thinking Ranma began running out of the hotel, the rest of us close behind and the hotel manager yelling something at us. We got around the next mountain path and found a deep valley.

"It's Jusenkyo!" Ryoga yelled as we sped down the path. "What are we going to do from here when we don't have the map?"

"We'll worry about that later." Ranma said as we entered the valley only to hear a strange gurgling noise.

"The springs!" Mousse pointed out, and I saw the water just draining out of the little indentures.

"N-No way..." Ryoga said, collapsing next to one of the now dry holes. "This means... the Spring of Drowned Man is..." The four cursed men sat in a moment of stunned silence before Plum lead them gently into the guide's house. The group was still in a stunned silence and Plum began talking to fill the void.

"I'm worried... Papa has been missing since that day..." She sighed. "I'll lead honored customers to the source of Jusenkyo." Suddenly Ranma was standing.

"Do you remember the map?"

"Look over there." Plum said pointing at a travel poster on the wall advertising Jusendo as a tourist spot. "It's easy to find the place. But inside Jusendo... I only remember about half of it. Will that be enough?"

"Whatever you remember will be fine!" Mousse said.

"Just take us there, we have to hurry!" Ryoga added. Within a few minutes we were ready to leave, most of our equipment long gone.

"Ranma..." I started as we walked.

"Hmm?"

"Yoku will likely be waiting for us there."

"Shouldn't be too big of a problem. She's just another Nabiki, as long as I keep my wallet out of her reach we should be fine."

"Yeah but she'll have Solarus with her."

"Good point. Plum, once we get there... Stay close. Guys, be careful."

"One more thing. When the fighting breaks out... I'll take care of Yoku." I said. Ranma looked at me carefully.

"Alright. But if we get bored beating up the small fry, don't be surprised if we join in." I nodded as Plum suddenly spoke up.

"Aiya! Even the famous Jusendo waterfall has stopped flowing!" We turned to see the towering mountain of rock. Sheer cliffs freckled with giant iron doors. No bird men were flying outside, so they would have to be inside by now.

"This is a fortress." Ranma commented as Plum led us around the base.

"When you first look at it, you think that Jusendo has a lot of entrances. But all the wrong doors have a trap inside. Only the correct door is safe."

"So, which one is the right door?"

"I don't remember." We turned another corner and came to a small steel door with guard tape near by saying authorized personnel only and Employee Entrance taped to the front of the door. "Let's use this door." Plum said. Ranma nodded in agreement and slammed the door open.

"Let's move! Keep your eyes open for anythi... Gah!" I skittered out of the way as a wave of cold water hit the trio. Inside stood Shampoo holding her chui.

"By the order of Lady Kiima, I destroy all intruders!" The fight soon began. I ducked around her wide swings, trying to get behind her while Ranma forced her attention. She made a hard swing and I grabbed my sword by the sheathe, blocking the hit but dropping to one knee.

'Now!" Mousse, in duck form, closed in an launched a spread of chains, tying Shampoo down. Ranma immediately closed the distance and pinned Shampoo as I got out of the way.

"Shampoo! We're your friends! Try to remember!"

"Shampoo have no friends!" She yelled, kicking the bulbous top off of one of her chui. Genma-panda hit it on approach and it snapped open, revealing some of those eggs that control minds. In a few seconds he was trapped. Shampoo immediately headbutted Ranma out of the way and got free. I gave chase as she ran to break open the egg. Ranma recovered in time to kick the egg out of the way while I tackled Shampoo to the ground. Ranma took the moment to crack open the egg with her fist.

"Come out Pops!" She yelled and dragged Genma out, but he was completely dazed Shampoo took my moment of distracted to shove Ranma out of the way as Genma returned to conscious.

"Panda now kill intruders!" She said as Genma stood up and began approaching us. Ranma squared off against her father while I focused on Shampoo. I swerved under her swings, with only one chui left she was relying more on hand to hand combat so I left my own weapons tied to my side. Unfortunately she was overwhelmingly quick and agile; most every move had a purpose to it, and at once she flipped over me and used the momentum to kick Ranma into the far wall. As she collided the wall flipped around, taking Ranma with it. I took the opportunity to bolt out the door, leaving Shampoo alone.

As soon as I was far enough I began looking for a way in, then decided that the best place to start was at the top. At the very least I could break in from above. Unfortunately as I began climbing I spotted Solarus entrenched in the cliff paths. Soon I was under heavy fire, as I charged up the mountain, slicing and burning anything on my way to the top.

After slaughtering dozens of Solarus I finally reached the peak, and laid down for a moment.

"Oy!" I woke up to Mousse slapping me awake.

"Wha..."

"This is where you went off to. Come on, we're getting ready to make a final attack."

"What happened?"

"Akane's almost dead and we need the Jusendo water to revive her. We found the Guide and Ryoga started digging the tunnel over there. Come on." I nodded and stretched my sore muscles. Soon I was at an opening overlooking a giant entwined phoenix and dragon statue. Below was a pool with an enormous egg in it.

"How careless. Not a single sentry." Ryoga said.

"Only one channel, cold will not flow until hot shut off." The Guide said.

"But if we touch the Kinjakan to turn it off..." Mousse started.

"You dry up like miss customer."

"Ryoga, Blast me with Shishi Hokodan." Ranma said, setting his back to the opening.

"Huh?"

"From our position here, we might be able to blow the neck off the pheonix. Along with the Kinjakan. Not only that..."

"If you're able to land on top of the Dragon's Head using that momentum..." Ryoga said.

"You'll stop the hot water without even touching the Kinjakan!" Mousse added.

"One stone, two birds." Ranma said.

"But sir's hands don't move!" The Guide pointed out emphasizing a crystalline substance coating Ranma's hands.

"Tough. I'm the only one that can do it. I'm the strongest, the smartest, the fastest..." I sighed and tugged at the guide's sleave.

"Why can't we touch the Kinjakan?"

"If touch Kinjakan, heat will evaporate all moisture in body."

"Heat? I can handle that." I said moving towards the entrance.

"Shishi Hokodan!" Ryoga yelled and fired Ranma out of the tunnel.

"Wait!"

"Shit the egg's threads!" Ryoga yelled and fired a second blast, propelling Ranma further into the air and away from the thin threads the egg was producing. I ran out dodging the threads and began climbing the phoenix when a slice coated the room, cutting the phoenix head in half. I tumbled along the ground and out of the way of the egg's threads and the now uncontrolled water spout. The room began to heat up, and within minutes began shaking. I lost sight of Ranma and the others and the ground caved in around me.

"So, you stayed with it. I'm proud of you Pahhur." I sat up to see Yoku sitting on a golden throne in front of me. Her clothing was plated with golden spines and she had small golden points over her knuckles on one hand, on the other she seemed to have some sort of change collector.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, the usual. Gold, jewels, wealth. But right now I need you." She reached out and one of the spines on her glove shot towards me, pinning down my shirt. "Oh poor weak Nabiki, thinking she can stand up to the great and powerful Fire Goddess. She must be deluded..." She smirked down at me. "Am I close?" A second tip extended out and pinned my other side down.

"What... Why?" She let out a chilled laugh that echoed around the cave.

"I'm sure you know the reason. Avarus can give me all that I could ever want. In exchange, I just have to procure some... items for him. I'm the smart one here, unlike most of the people he caught that day. Many of them refused to do anything but kill their shadows, only the smart ones, who could see the tides of battle, decided to be so much more. I warned you to leave while you had the chance, I see that Metudo took my advice; but you were always the stubborn one." I tugged on the outfit, feeling it start to tear around the pin-pricks.

"Thanks... For making this easy." I said and in a single movement I tore free and drew both my blades. She just grinned and stopped my assault with her plated glove, the gold bits now extended fully into claws.

"I guess I can play with you for now. But I would be careful if I were you." With a couple of rapid attacks she pushed me into the wall, then sliced the wall out from behind me. It collapsed out, revealing a swirling sea of water below us.

"Wh-What is this?" I asked as I firmed up my footing.

"If I remember correctly, you pass out when soaked in water." She said her eyes never leaving me. "So I brought you down to the source. Here is where all the water in Jusendo is stored. A fitting arena, I think." I scowled and returned my gaze to her. The mountain above us began shaking again, and small rocks began tumbling down the tunnel I fell through. She held her claw at the ready, and I charged into battle.


	8. Chapter 8

**Pahhur**

The clashing of metals echoed off the thin walls. I spun to duck a new blow and tried to close in. Yoku danced around my blade, staying just out of reach, I in turn managed to avoid the tips of her claws. However she wasn't aiming for me, and instead cut deep into the rock beneath us. A stream of water shot out and drenched my left arm. All at once I felt like I was carrying a heavy weight on my left. I tried moving my arm, but it refused to respond. I scrambled to put some extra distance between us, and set my fiery sword next my skin. She wasn't going to give me that chance, and I barely dodged twin projectiles as they cracked the wall behind me; opening a new hole to the surging currents below. I turned to see her lightly tossing what looked like a coin in the air.

"Do you really have time to be distracted?" She gave the coin a half-hearted toss and I moved out of the way, only to feel it clip my side. I turned to see that it had grown several times larger in flight. I was only vaguely aware of breath on the back of my neck. "I asked you a question." My vision blurred for a moment as my body went into shock. Two of her claws were protruding from my sides. Not life-threatening, yet.

The pain forced me to the ground and some blood seeped onto the floor before my body could cauterize the wounds.

"Oh I was so looking forward to seeing you like this." She said, pulling my head up so she could look me in the eye. "Yes I always did think you would look good on your knees." She seemed satisfied that I wasn't a threat anymore and started back to her throne. Strength surged through my body as I forced myself to stand and charge.

As quickly as I started I stopped as six long spears pierced my arms and legs, pinning me down. As I recovered from the new shock I saw them coming from her chair. "I wish you had stayed put, but I guess so long as you're alive it won't matter." She sat gracefully and stared at me, her eyes a cold sea.

"What I can't figure out is why you didn't run. You're friends seemed to understand the situation; and I know you've faced Kurohi before. What don't you understand about the gap between us?" I tried to down out her voice, I struggled, pulled at the pierced flesh, tried to get free, tried to stop her. Needed to stop her. My mind tunneled. I had to do something. Then my arm was free, and my legs. I was moving. All I could see was her surprised expression as I clutched my blade and struck. I hit metal, then flesh before falling back to my knees.

She pulled away, surprised, I could see I managed to cut through the protection of her shoulder plates and left a deep wound near her heart. The cavern rumbled a little, she seemed to reconsider her position as a few stones fell down into the cavern.

"Seems the Prince wasn't strong enough. For showing me something so... interesting. I'll let you live. I'll be back though! You can count on it." With that she opened a small device and stepped through a portal that appeared behind her and sealed as soon as she left. Exhausted I let myself pass out.

I woke up bandaged and in a strange room. I could hear people talking outside of the small room and got up to go see. After traveling down a set of stairs I saw the Tendo household plus some extras sitting around the dining room table. The talking quieted as I walked in.

"Told you she'd be okay." One man I didn't recognize said as he fixed his large glasses.

"Pah." Ranma started before Mr. Tendo leapt to his feet.

"Unacceptable! I will not allow my daughter get involved in this!" I couldn't help but laugh at this.

"I feel like I've heard this one before." I said before sitting down near the table. "I see everyone made it okay?" Ranma nodded.

"It was a good thing Ryoga stumbled across you down there. It woulda sucked to have you tarnish my record."

"Thank you." I said with a short bow to Ryoga. "Everything should be alright here from now on. I should probably talk to Tech, how long have I been out?"

"Don't worry about it, you were asleep for the whole trip back; but Tech already came by to check on you. And talk." Akane said.

"We've decided, despite what our stupid Pops say." Ranma said. "We've agreed to come with you. Tech's outside making some final arrangements."

"Besides, it's the only way to make sure some of our family members will stay safe." Akane said. I just smiled as the ground began to shake. After a few minutes of intense rumbling, it stopped and Tech waltzed in.

"Alright, move's done. Welcome to your new home!" I glanced outside, and saw the same sky that had been out there a few minutes ago. "I left in an artificial sky, and I'll make the improvements to the Dojo soon enough. Next door is the Kuno Residency, Ukyo's Shop, Tofu's home clinic, and the Cat Cafe. I think that covers everything except the badges." Tech held out a small stack of blank badges. "As asked, seven badges as a peaceful life for the rest of you."

"Yeah, but in exchange yer getting some of the best damn cooks around and an excellent doctor." Ranma said.

"Don't forget a school Ranma." Akane pointed out. "Since we're going to convert a portion of the Kuno manor into a classroom. Hinako even agreed to teach. Ranma just groaned as he slipped his badge over his heart. One of our uniforms appeared under his clothes as Tech helpped me to my feet and began leading me out.

"That was extremely risky Pah."

"I know. But..."

"We couldn't just leave them. We're going to need their help now more than ever if Avarus has managed to convince some of the shadows to work for him." He started down the hallway out of the living quarters.

"I can't believe how strong she was." I said, keeping pace.

"If Nabiki's shadow was that strong, I can only guess at the others."

"But at least we have some regular food now..." I said, pondering my very empty stomach.

"That reminds me, I've had to instill a system of currency for the castle. It'll be a credit system, but I'm working on a suit implant that can convert the credits into just about any currency."

"Sweet! How much do we get!"

"You'll be paid per mission. Starting next mission." He said before walking off.


	9. Chapter 9

**Akane**

It was a strange feeling, leaving our old gates and winding up in a stone corridor. Almost as strange as walking through a door to enter Kuno's estate. But in a little less than a week one of the rooms had been converted into a makeshift classroom; and the people that could be classified as students were herded in.

I couldn't help wondering how one teacher was going to handle everything. Especially Hinako, and my fears were confirmed as Principal Kuno waltzed in.

"Aloha Keikis! Welcome to the new school of Kuno! Where I will be both da homeroom and History teacher!"

"Kill me." Ranma moaned next to me.

"Now den, lesse who's absent..." He scanned the room slowly, though even I could tell there were only two empty seats.

"Right, so Pahhur, Zephos and Saotome are absent." He made three quick marks on his notepad before Ranma planted his foot squarely on the Principal's face.

"I'm right here dumbass!"

"Oh hey! I didn't see you dere. Now fo kickin' da teacher, out into da hall." Syndil raised her hand.

"Uh, sir. Pahhur and Zephos are still in the hospital. So..."

"I understand. Check both are not coming today. Alright, we will begin in da edo period, where my great grandpappy won da war against da northern samurai!"

I just slumped over my desk, what could we possibly learn from this lunatic.

It seemed like forever before he left and Dr. Tofu walked in with Ranma in tow.

"Hey, I was asked to teach First Aid, since it could easily save your life." Within the hour today began to feel like a real school day. Hinako was teaching Literature, Tech and Thorium teamed up to teach Math and Science, and later in the day Asuka came in to teach apparently Combat.

"Alright you commoners, the field is a tough place, and I'm going to make sure you're up to the task." I had never seen a grin cross Ranma's face like the one he had now.

"Trust me, I think we can handle it."

"Oh ho... I remember that mouth of yours well Saotome. I think we'll start you off with 20 laps and work up from there."

"Might as well start at 50, it won't bother me."

"Alright, 50 laps, but it'll be in the castle halls."

"Don't... those technically go on into infinity?"

"Oh right... Well, I guess you can just keep going until you get tired then. As for the rest of you, follow me!"

Somewhere during the day she had us join with the other class, and we practiced sparring while she and a few others gave hints. As the sun began to set, Tech pulled me aside and took me to a small office along with Ukyo.

"I did some checking, and congratulations you two."

"What?"

"You're the new Team Leaders. I figured for a group of seven we'd need at least two, and that's you!"

"You mean, we're going to be leading missions? Why!"

"You don't want to?"

"I'm not that strong, I mean, why not Ranma and Ryoga, they're ridiculously strong."

"They're also emotionally and mentally unstable. A leader needs to be able to assess a situation and make decisions. Those two are powerhouses, and should be left to do what they do best. I need intelligent people that can also hold their own in a fight. I don't care if you're the strongest or not."

"L-let me think about it." I said, and walked out.

"Alright, I'm setting up a mission in two days. I'd like to send you since it should be a low intensity mission." He called to me down the hall. I just kept walking when a new voice stopped me.

"You should do it." I turned to see Ranma, out of breath and scowling at me. "You'd make a great Team Leader! You could teach 'em how to cook; it'd be the most dangerous force in the universe." I chose to ignore him and keep walking, as usual he chose to follow me.

"B'Sides, there's gotta be something you can do. It's not like you can fight, or cook, or swim."

"Okay Ranma, I get it. I'm worthless. Now go bother someone else, I need to think." I was tempted to just hit him and get it over with, but he was hitting all the right points and I needed to be alone.

"Right thinking, something that the rest of us obviously don't do."

"You're just jealous I was picked!" I turned on him, ready to attack. He had already backed into a defensive posture.

"N-no! I mean who'd actually want to lead a bunch of idiots around, it sounds like a pain."

"Right, so then why are you trying to stop me?"

"For your own good! For everyone's good! A team lead by you will definitely fail!" This time I hit him as I turned around, leaving him in a small crater in the floor.

"Fine, then I guess I'll just have to go prove you wrong." I heard him crying after me as I turned a few corners and ran into Tech.

"Oh, Akane."

"I'll do it."

"What?"

"I'll be a Team Leader." He grinned down at me and nodded.

"Excellent I'll go get the roster set up, you can leave in the morning."

"One thing. Make sure Ranma isn't going." He chuckled a little and waved me off as he slinked back down the halls. I sighed and headed for home.

I woke up early and realized halfway through my warmup that I wasn't going to school today. So after my shower I slipped on my gi and headed to the central hall.

Tech met me on the way up.

"You'll be going with Odin and Shampoo, they're already waiting for you at the Core." As we entered I was met with Shampoo's scowl. All I could do was grin back.

"I listen to you, for now. But I watch back closely." I just walked past her and entered the main chamber. The core was overwhelmingly large, it almost felt like I was standing in front of the sun, as blue light radiated off the massive ball.

"Portal opening now, good luck!" The light gathered in front of us, and a window opened in the air, showing a metal wall filled with panels. I took a deep breath and stepped through.

As the portal closed behind us we looked around at the large hallway we were now standing in. A few passing people spotted us and made their way over. I noticed their matching red uniforms.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but this is a secure area. If you're off duty you should stick to the designated areas." The first man said, as the woman next to him looked me over.

"I don't think I've seen you on board before, are you new recruits?" I could feel myself starting to panic, but caught myself.

"Uh, yes sorry!" I bowed politely. "We're a little lost."

"That's alright, where are your quarters?"

"Uh... Uh... We, don't have any?" The kind smiles on their faces seemed to fall away. The woman whispered something to the man who nodded and ran off.

"I'll have to ask you to come with me." She said, as she led us down a long hall to what looked like an elevator. I could feel Odin fidgeting behind me. His armor made him seem very much out of place, yet no one seemed to care. The elevator came to a stop and we were led down another hall and into a somewhat large room.

"I'm going to have to ask you to stay here for now, the Captain will be here shortly to see you." Once she was done she called over two guards for the door and left.

"So, Akane-chan first mission and we already captured. Not even put up fight."

"I didn't see you helping!"

"Of course not. Shampoo accent would make talking difficult."

"Then don't criticize me! I have no clue where we are, or why!" I said, before sitting on the bed. "Besides we're here to make friends, not start a fight."

"What if enemy? What if you doom all of us?" I turned away to look at Odin who seemed to have backed into the corner of a wall.

The door slid open suddenly a striking man entered wearing a gold shirt. He scanned the room before approaching me.

"I am Captain James T. Kirk... now... what are a bunch of stowaways doing on my ship?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Akane**

"So... You're trying to say that, you're not only from another time, but another reality altogether?" Kirk paced slowly around the room, watching us closely. I nodded slowly and he turned to his pointy eared associate. "Spock, is what they are saying... Possible?"

"Possible, yes. But highly unlikely. Considering the time period they seem to have come from is no later than the early twenty-first century Earth. The chances they would have that kind of technology are slim."

"It's not really our technology, we agreed to help a group of, friends. They have a guy named Tech working with them. He's able to do all sorts of weird things."

"And that brought you here?" Kirk said.

"Yes, we're looking for aid. There is a war going on, and our opponent has an overwhelming force. So we're sent out in groups to worlds that haven't been hit yet to get whatever help we can." Kirk seemed to consider me for a while.

"What kind of aid would you need?" He said, sitting down on one of the chairs in the room.

"An army would be preferred, but we'd understand if you can't offer that. Other than that food, building supplies, just about anything we could use to keep people fed or make into weapons. We do have some things we can even trade with." Kirk turned to Spock.

"What do you think?"

"I think the Federation Council will want to handle this matter themselves. Depending on what trade we can establish, I suspect we can ensure replicators at the very least."

"Agreed. We're going to have to get you three to the nearest star-base. From there you can take a shuttle to the Federation Council at Earth."

"Captain to the bridge, a Klingon ship is hailing us." Kirk shot up and only hesitated for a moment with the guard outside before vanishing behind the sliding doors.

"We're not even on Earth now..." Odin said as he sat down on the bed. Shampoo was also visibly shaken. We sat a little while in silence, then the whole room began shaking and alarms began blaring.

"Red Alert, we're under attack." A voice came in over the comm system. I shot up from my seat, anxious to do something.

"We've got to help them somehow."

"We no know where we even are, what Akane plan?"

"I guess we'll have to first figure out where we are. He said this was a ship right? So there has to be an above decks, and the fighting is probably happening there."

"He also said we were far away from Earth. What if this is a space ship?" Odin said.

"Then... I don't know, we'll figure it out as we go, alright? Come on." I said as I moved through the door, only to be held by one of the guards.

"I'm sorry ma'am. But you've been designated as an ambassador, so we're going to have to ask you to stay in your room until the fighting is over."

"We are going to help..." Before I could even finish my sentence some lights materialized in the hall and three tall men with tanned skin appeared. They didn't even waste a second in drawing their blades and stabbing the guards I was talking to.

"Warning, boarding parties detected!" A mechanical voice spoke up, but I was already squaring off with one of the men. Odin had his own blade drawn and at the ready.

"Draw you weapon!" The man snarled at me, as he waved his own around.

"I don't have any." I said, as I settled into my preferred stance. He blinked at me for a moment then grinned and sheathed his own weapon.

"Very well, I'll just have to snap your neck then." He approached with a surprising amount of speed, but nothing I hadn't seen from Ranma before. I ducked under his first strike and landed a solid hit to his exposed kidney. He staggered for a moment and rounded on me grinning; he struck again. This time I wasn't so lucky as he slammed into my mid-rift, I hit the ground and slid a few feet further. Ignoring the pain I stood back up to see him start charging towards me. I saw an opening in his posture, he thought he'd won. I jumped over his hands as they moved down and spun in the air to land a heavy kick to the back of his head. He collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"You alright?" Odin asked as I shifted my weight around to check for damage.

"Yeah, I think he only bruised me. Let's keep going." I said, realizing Shampoo and Odin had already finished with the other two men.

As we dashed through the hallways we came across several firefights that had broken out, red and green beams of light were slashing back and forth through the halls. We tried to avoid them, but when we flanked a few of the large men, we took them down quickly and kept going. One of the Federation men pointed us towards something called a Turbolift, which apparently functioned like an elevator.

"Okay... Okay... In most space movies the place where the captain is..." I tried to think as I followed the man's instructions and grasped the small handle firmly.

"Bridge!" Odin said, and the lift started to move.

"I hope you're right." I said as the lift slowed to a stop and the doors opened to a tense scene.

Kirk was standing in the middle of the room, what I assumed to be a gun in his hand, most of the bridge crew also had guns out, but there were three of the tanned men on the bridge as well, and all their guns were pointed at Kirk. Before we could move one of the men shifted his aim to us and waved us out of the lift.

"Surrender the ship Captain, you have been defeated by a superior opponent!"

"I'm not quite beaten yet Kor! Now how about you and your Klingon friends leave my ship before you get hurt."

"Oh the mighty Kirk, what an honor it is to finally face you in combat. Your Enterprise will make a fine trophy. Kill him." The two Klingons fired and Kirk ducked behind a chair. He took a quick shot and a panel behind one of the Klingons exploded. Fortunately they weren't aiming at us any more and Odin took the opportunity to thunk the other one upside the head with his sword. Now with all guns pointed at Kor and Odin holding a blade behind him the situation had changed.

"I see we will not be taking your ship. At least you will not leave the Neutral Zone." With that Kor vanished in a stream of colors. Kirk rapidly recovered and sat in his chair.

"Shields up, prepare phasers to fire."

"Sir, shields are still offline. But the engines have regained power."

"Then get us out of here, we to put some distance between us and those War Birds."

"Sir, they're blocking our route back into Federation space. We'll either have to try and run them, or go deeper into the Neutral Zone." Spock said.

"Alright, we'll have to go deeper then, at least until we get shields back. Plot a course Mr. Spock, Warp 2." The screen in front of us shimmered as the stars blurred across it. Kirk turned to us. "Thank you for the assistance, but I'm going to ask you to leave the bridge."

"Oh. Right." I said and turned to the others. Spock joined us in the lift as it went down.

"You seem injured. I will take you to the medical bay." I noticed that somewhere in the fighting my suit had been torn enough to display my mid-rift. There was an ugly black bruise forming even as the suit slowly stitched itself back together. My gi that I was wearing over the suit was all but shredded and I decided to remove it.

"It's alright, I'll be fine."

"I would rather be safe, Klingons are known to be much stronger than humans. It is likely there is internal bleeding as well as a few broken bones."

"Please, I've had worse before."

"I fail to see how that should affect your decision."

"I can't be trapped up in a cast waiting for this to heal, not when the Klingons could attack again at any time."

"I see. I apologize, I didn't understand the context of your decision. I assure you the doctor will have you fixed in a few minutes."

"You wouldn't be lying to make me go."

"Vulcans do not lie." I looked at him for a sign of the truth, but he looked so absolutely sure of himself all I could do was sigh and follow him to the medical bay.


	11. Chapter 11

**Akane**

"There ya go, all set." The doctor said after running a small machine over my ribs.

"That's some powerful medicine." Odin said from his corner.

"I heard we had some folks who were a bit displaced in time. If you can stay for a little while, I'd like to give each of you a quick check-up."

"If its faster than mending my ribs, I don't see why not." I said. As he opened a small box and held a small device over each of us for a few seconds.

"Well you almost won that round Spock. Early twenty-first century, for the two women, Asian heritage for all three, but this man barely registers as human. Plus his DNA is more consistent with late 12th century. Looks like you owe me some brandy when we get back to Earth." He turned back to Odin. "Now what exactly are you?"

"Well... It's not exactly easy to explain."

"Kid, last week we found a rock that could send people through time. Try me."

"I... I see... Well, it's less that it's hard to explain, and more that I'm not really sure of all the details myself. But I guess the quick version is that I'm the embodiment of Earth or something like that. And there's this other guy who wants to steal my power for himself; and he's pretty ruthless about it. He's slaughtering whole planets just to make sure my friends and I get no help." The doctor turned to Spock.

"Did you know about this?"

"Most of it."

"Does the Captain?"

"Yes."

"Then why on God's green Earth are we going in the wrong direction."

"The Klingons Doctor."

"What the hell is Scotty doing with those shields anyway?"

"I'm sure he is working with maximum efficiency." The doctor just sighed and held a hand out to me.

"Dr. Leonard McCoy, I hope to see you lot down here in better condition next time."

"Right." I shook his and and the three of us headed out back towards our quarters.

"So what we do now Akane?" Shampoo said, as she lazily sprawled out on the bed.

"I don't know. None of us are good with machinery, so we can't really help with the flying or repairs..."

"Doesn't mean we can't just start learning." Odin said.

"I guess?"

"If we're going to try and be allies with these people, I think it would be a good start to learn about their tools."

"I think, that's an excellent idea." I turned to see the captain walk into the room.

"Captain!"

"We're clear of the Klingons for now, so I came down to check on you. I was going to assign new guards, but if you would like to learn, I think we can arrange something, since even if we get back to Federation Space without any further mishaps it will still be a few months. You could at least understand the basics by then."

"Right... Then we leave ourselves in your care." I said bowing.

**Ukyo**

I sighed deeply, between the heat and Ranma's bitching my wits were worn down. I had been ecstatic when I learned I was going to be given command of a team, even more so when I learned that Ranma was going with me on my first trip out. But since we were heading to familiar territory, according to Tech I had two extras tagging along. Leukos wasn't much of a problem since he seemed to keep to himself, but Pah seemed even more energetic than usual.

We had a long, painful, trek across the desert, but we finally had arrived at Rainbase.

"Water!" Luffy suddenly yelled and rushed into town, just as the rest of us were trying to figure out how to approach stealthily.

"Are you sure we should help these guys?" Ranma asked.

"Let him be, if we're lucky he'll create a diversion for us to slip in unnoticed." Nami said.

"Besides, I don't think we have much room to talk." Leukos said, pointing towards Pah, who was also charging into the city.

"Right..." Ranma said, sighing.

"Crocodile's casino is right at the center of town. We should slip in when the explosions start and make our way there." Nami said, holding out a map.

Unfortunately, no sooner had we slipped into town than Luffy, Usopp and Pah came running towards us, leading a large force of Marines.

"What are you standing there for! Run!"


	12. Chapter 12

**Ukyo**

"Right!"

"No, Left!" I yelled as Luffy, and half the group rounded a corner, closely followed by Smoker, I turned left and soon my small group burst into a large room with a huge table. Behind the table was an even larger cage, where Luffy's group was now sitting. I assumed the man chuckling to himself over the entrapped crew was our target. He had noticed us enter.

"Oh, I see a few managed to evade my trap. I'm glad to know you're not all insufferably stupid." I drew out my weapon.

"Let them go!" He began chortling again.

"I'd rather you join them, by force if necessary." Ranma didn't really let him finish and charged down, delivering a powerful punch to his face. Crocodile didn't even budge, instead turning with Ranma's fist still inside his face so he could grin at us again. Ranma retreated immediately, but I spotted Crocodile moving towards Ranma and leapt down, slicing between the two. Despite that Ranma fell to the ground, and soon after I was thrown into the nearby wall.

"Stop it!" Leukos yelled and jumped into the fray, his blade extending out to pierce Crocodile several times, all while coated in electricity. Crocodile just slicked back his hair before exploding into a cloud of sand. A second later all three of us were pinned to the ground. His face began reappearing, laughing again over us when it exploded; only to form again a few seconds later.

"What?" I looked towards the entryway and spotted Usopp shivering behind one of the pillar. "Seems like I missed one." He quickly grabbed Usopp by the nose and tossed him into the room, where he quickly wrapped us in sand to hold us there. "What to do... Ah, I know the Bananawani could probably use the meal."

"Crocodile!" Vivi was now standing in the entryway.

"Well hello Vivi, Princess of Alabasta." Crocodile said, while sitting back at his table. "No... Miss Wednesday, you've done an excellent job of avoiding the assassins I've sent after you."

"I'd climb through hell so long as it meant I could see you die Mr. Zero."

"No, it's your country that will die Mis Wednesday."

"If you weren't here Alabasta would be at peace!" She yelled and charged towards him, her bladed peacock ribbons out and ready.

"Wait Vivi! That won't work!" I tried to warn her, but it was too late. His head erupted in a cloud of sand, and the next moment he was reforming behind her. It only took a moment for him to pin her as well.

"Sit. It's just about time for the party to begin." As he pushed her into the chair a plume of fire struck his shoulder; and it solidified into glass. "What?"

"Crocodile!" Luffy yelled, his fist coming out of a smoke plume, and shattering the glass shoulder. Crocodile was forced to retreat a distance.

"How?" As the smoke cleared Pah came into focus, a long bar of metal in her mouth. "The Kairoseki?" Pah chewed it up and burped out a small cloud of smoke.

"Gotta hand it to ya, that stuff is much tougher than what I'm used to."

"Impossible, it's supposed to prevent fruit powers."

"Ah, but I don't have a fruit power." Pah lit up her body and prepared to charge Crocodile; who was now visibly shaken. Once he felt a safe distance away he pressed a button and turned back towards the room as everything began shaking.

"I see or time here has been cut short, but let me tell you something good. It doesn't matter if you beat me here, my plan is already in motion. So, if you want to have a chance at saving Alabasta, I would suggest you leave now!"


	13. Chapter 13

"Alright, alright, I've had enough proof. So, you have the powers, why do you need an army?" Mr. Black said, visibly shaken from our last little trip through the bulkhead.

"We've only got a dozen people, the enemy has troops numbering in the billions. There's no way we can hold every front." Metudo said, having taken over negotiations now.

"I hope you don't think a hundred thousand men will be enough."

"Of course not. But it would be a start. Moot wasn't lying when he said we could pay." Black puled a cigar out of his coat and lit it.

"Unfortunately I'm not the guy you need to talk to; and with all the raids and riots, I can't really say anyone can afford that many troops." Metudo glanced back at me.

"We can't take no for an answer." Seth said suddenly.

"If we take care of some of these raids, would that free up the resources we need?" Metudo said. The cigar flicked from one side of the man's mouth to the other, then he grinned across the table.

"I think we can work something out."

–

We were taken to a cavernous room, banners coated the wall in all sorts of markings, what looked like a dinning room was visible through a wide archway, and there were doors along the walls.

"These will be your quarters for now. I'm sorry that the only available ones were on the second deck, I hope the accommodations are large enough." Black said before giving us a tour. There were no less than six bedrooms, each one large enough to fit a barn. The kitchen was fully stocked in both cookery and food. I made a note to come back down here as soon as possible. As he left a young man entered.

"Ah, this is Dave. He will be your servant during your stay. Please, accept him as a gift. I will come back for you once I have some details."

Once he was gone I bolted into the kitchen and grabbed for whatever I could get my mouth around.

"You and Pah. Someone would think we didn't feed you." Metudo said, sitting down at a mini-bar that occupied one of the walls. It took a while before I noticed Dave watching me. I stopped for a moment and offered him the peach I was about to eat. He just backed away and shook his head. I shrugged and continued eating while Seth slinked in.

"So, yer a servant?"

"Sir?"

"What's your specialty?"

"Oh, cooking, cleaning, the usual stuff."

"Is that all? How about math? You look like you enjoy some number crunching."

"No! I haven't! I mean... Why would I?"

"Relax a little will ya? How 'bout some booze?" Seth leaned over the bar and pulled out a tall bottle. He squinted trying to read the label, but eventually shook his head. "Have some of... whatever this is."

He poured two glasses and sat down, finally Metudo put down his own glass and forced the fridge door shut. I swallowed and went to sit down.

"Most likely, they're going to send us after these rebels. Thoughts?"

"It might get a little rough, especially if we have to do the last leg ourselves. We don't have any familiarity with this world, and no real contacts." Seth said. "But, I'm definitely behind helping them, if only for some more of whatever this is." He poured another glass.

"I dunno." I said. "I mean these are people fighting for their freedom. We might be better off siding with the rebels."

"We don't know that its the slaves rebelling yet." Metudo pointed out.

"What else could it be? Trust me, it's the underprivileged." I said taking a swig out of a bottle I found. The sweet taste sticking in my throat.

"If it is the slaves, I side with Moot. I'd rather help them, but we do need that army."

"Do you think they'd agree to letting us evacuate the rebels? It would solve both problems, temporarily." Seth said.

"We take the rebels into custody and get the troops? Somehow I don't think that's going to work." I said. "If these nobles are anything like the people I know, this is a personal vendetta. They won't be happy until the rebels are dead or in chains."

"I'm going to talk to Tech about this, you two might as well get some sleep." Metudo said, waving us off.

The bed itself was like lying on a cloud, as soon as I downed the last of my bottle I hit the pillow and passed out.


	14. Chapter 14

**Ranma**

Whatever I was expecting, I wasn't expecting him to kick sand in my face and run after Usopp. By the time I could see Usopp was on the ground and the freak was nowhere to be seen.

"Dammit! Usopp can you stand!"

"I-I can't go on... Just leave me here..."

"I can't do that, if fighting breaks out, you'll be trampled." He jumped to his feet.

"You're right!"

"Good, let's go stop that guy."

"Oooh, my sudden illness is acting up..." He leaned against a wall. "Go on ahead, I'll catch up."

"Alright. You should make your way out of town, it'll be safer there." I made my way onto the rooftops and started in the direction I thought that assassin had gone off in.

**Ukyo**

As we arrived at the city fighting had already broken out in the stairways.

"Looks like Vivi didn't make it." Leukos said, dismounting from Eyelashes the camel. I followed suit.

"We better head to the palace." I patted Eyelashes. "You can go somewhere safe, thanks for taking us this far." The camel graciously bowed and dashed off towards the horizon.

The fighting on the stairs was brutal, so we had to climb the wall instead. But once inside it was still a fairly clear dash towards the palace. The rebellion had already spilled into the main streets, but a lot of the back alleys were devoid of life.

"Halt!" We had reached a line of guards.

"Wait! We're with Princess Vivi!"

"Sir, the Princess was reported to be traveling with a group of pirates."

"We're with that group, there's about ten of us total. The rest are currently fighting against Baroque Works agents."

"She's up at the palace, you barely missed her."

"Thank you, come on!"

As we crested the stairs and entered the plaza we walked in on Vivi talking to a taller man.

"General Chaka! There's an intruder!" A man yelled as he crawled towards us. He was bleeding badly.

"You've made quite a mess of my plans Miss Wednesday... Isn't this palace going to be mine soon?"

"Crocodile!" Leukos and I had weapons drawn and ready. The door slammed shut behind us, and I could hear the soldiers screaming and preparing to knock it down.

"Dieciseis Fleur"

"Robin?" Leukos asked.

"Seis Fluer Clutch!" Hands gripped Leukos and bent him backwards while covering his mouth.

"Miss All Sunday?" Crocodile had come down from the roof of the building, behind him was a man pinned to a pillar.

"Father!" Vivi yelled.

"I see. You may go on ahead. I will take care of things here."

"Wait! Don't go near the King Crocodile!" Chaka yelled.

"What happened to Luffy and Pah!"

"They went for a little swim."

"Lier! Luffy couldn't have been killed by someone like you!"

"If you don't want to believe me, that's your choice. Control will change hands, and your family will be destroyed. Right King?" He walked over to the trapped King. "Now, answer one question for me... Where's Pluton?"

"H-How could you know that name?"

"Pluton, a weapon said to be able to destroy an island in one shot; named after a God. A lost legend, apparently hidden away on this island, handed down by the royal family. Where is it?"

"Even if I knew..."

"Oh, by the way. I prepared a little show beforehand. At 4 o' clock today, so in about 30 minutes, a bomb will be fired into the square. It has a blast radius of about 5 kilometers, so most likely, every rebel and soldier will die."

"How can you do this!" Vivi yelled.

"Now, Mr. Cobra, back to the problem at hand. I want the Poneglyph, the place where Pluton's location is transcribed."

"Alright... I will take you there." The King said.

"Hahahaha... You do know your duty after all!"

"Vivi... I can't restrain myself any longer." Chaka said, preparing to draw his weapon.

"Please wait! General Chaka!" Four large guys entered the palace gardens, having aparently opened the doors.

"The Duck Claw Squad!" Vivi said. As they faced down Crocodile.

"Release the King now!"

"Hahahaa... I like your spirit, I'll let you go. You better hurry though." Crocodile said.

"We cannot go back." Marks appeared on their arms.

"You guys! You didn't drink the Hero Water!"

"Forgive us General Chaka, but we have to beat this man!" They charged, but Crocodile just vanished in a plume of sand. He was back on the roof.

"Hahaha, what a bunch of idiots."

"Inu Inu Model: Jackal!" Chaka's body turned into a half jackal as he leapt up the building after Crocodile; even as the squad of men fell to the ground dying. However it was over before it could really even begin. Again Crocodile's powers allowed him to easily slip past Chaka's attacks and stab him. Leukos started to get back up.

"Come on, it's our turn!" Leukos coughed a little blood up and nodded. All Sunday was nowhere to be seen, and neither was the King. But Crocodile did come down to us.

"Come at me."

**Ranma**

I finally caught up, while he was in the middle of fighting Sanji, and saw an opening when the guy changed bodies to look like Nami.

"An opening!" I yelled, and planted both feet firmly into his back.

"You idiot!" I flew a few feet from Sanji's kick. "How dare you harm Nami's form!"

"Uh, Sanji?"

"Let me handle this." Sanji flicked his cigarette butt over his shoulder and turned back to the strange man still in the ground. "How dare you defile her purity!" He began kicking the fallen opponent further into the dirt, then stopped suddenly when the man turned back into Nami.

"Whhyy?" He/she cried out; and Sanji hesitated.

"Don't tell me you're going to fall for that!"

"I refuse to hurt a woman! Even if they only look like a woman at the time!" I pulled out a small canteen and dumped the cold contents over my head, shivering as my body changed.

"Then you won't mind if I beat her!" I yelled, and the torn Sanji just stood by as I tackled the fake man.

"Iiiinteresting! So Ambiguous! Are you a guy or a giiirl!" He yelled at me as he dodged away from my attacks and changed his face between his male one and Nami's.

"Shut up! Shut Up! SHUT UP!"

"Mutton Shot!" The opponent had returned to his normal form, and Sanji delivered a powerful move to the front, I took the opportunity to flip and land a final blow, knocking him out cold.

"That... Was annoying."

"Are you alright Ranma-Chan?" I look at Sanji, thinking for a moment before opening another canteen and dumping hot water over my head. "Suck it up." I smacked his head and started walking away.

"Come on, let's find the others."


	15. Chapter 15

**Leukos**

"Got you!" I yelled, having caught Crocodile in my chain blade, I channeled a fresh charge down the sword, but he had already turned back into sand.

"Look out!" Ukyo yelled as he reformed in front of me.

"Bolt!" I yelled, firing an enormous burst of lightning almost instantly. Crocodile just grinned and vanished, revealing Ukyo behind him. She tried to block my blast with her spatula, but the metal weapon absorbed the charge, sending it right to her. She fell to the ground and I ran over to her; only to be knocked to my feet.

"I've had fun, but I think it's time I ended this charade."

"Crocodile!" I looked up to see Luffy and Pah riding down on a huge bird.

"Impossible!" Luffy jumped down and landed a solid punch, throwing Crocodile to the ground.

"Luffy! Pahhur! There's a bomb in the town!" Vivi yelled.

"I'll hold him here, you guys go stop that bomb." We heard a shot come from outside, the rebel army had made it nearly to the front doors of the palace. I got to my feet and saw Ukyo starting to struggle to her feet.

"You alright?"

"Just a little fried, I'll be fine."

"Luffy! We're counting on you!" Pah yelled and raced out of the palace along with Vivi. I helped Ukyo get to her feet and we followed after. We split up into groups and started hunting the city then I noticed Ukyo's spatula looked different.

"Ukyo, look." We stopped for a moment, the general shape was smoother, the edges seemed sharper, and a little above the grip a mark had appeared. As she held it I could feel a charge flowing around it.

"It feels different, somehow..."

"It's got a charge of some sort, possibly residue from the attack it just took. Probably safer if you avoid using it for now."

"Right." I spotted the smoke that was used as our signal.

"Come on!" I said and the two of us headed for the signal. When we got there Ukyo pointed out where Usopp had written clocktower on the ground. I nodded and we headed for the tower.

**Pahhur**

"Vivi!" We had gathered at the foot of the tower.

"It's up there, I know it."

"Even knowing that there's no way we can climb up there in less than a minute." Nami said.

"Nami-chaan! Vivi-Swaan!" We looked up to see Sanji waving to us from halfway up the tower.

"Why are you up there!" Nami yelled

"You guys left a note 'Clocktower' so I just started climbing up."

"Just finish going up there and smash them!" Usopp yelled.

"Huuuh? What should I do?" We saw even further up Zoro was looking down at us. "I've been looking for you guys!"

"What?!"

"The marines told me to go north!"

"What are you Ryoga!" Ranma yelled.

"Who?"

"Just keep climbing!" Usopp yelled.

"Wait!"

"What?" We turned to Vivi.

"They can't enter the top from those stairs, they'd have to start from the back entrance."

"Zoro can just break the walls."

"I don't know if the cannon can take that kind of shock. We'll have to use the stairs..." I charged the tower.

"Sanji! Zoro! Launch!" I yelled as I got close I used a burst of fire to get myself airborne.

"Got it!" Sanji yelled as he jumped. I felt my feet touch down on his outstretched leg. My face stretched with the sudden speed burst and I flew still higher. Above the door to the clock was opening. I felt my feet touch down on Zoro's blades, and again I was burst further and faster into the air; I swiveled some, ready to launch another fire ball behind me so I could make the horizontal distance, but I hesitated when I saw someone standing inside the tower.

"Ha!" A burst of light filled my vision and I was falling again, rapidly. I looked up to confirm what I had seen. A man leapt out of the tower after me, gliding down, almost matching my pace; his dark black hair flying in the wind. I landed hard on the ground and struggled to move as his feet cracked into the ground. I knew him.

"Goku!" I drew my sword.

"Surprised? We originally wanted to use Solarus for this job, but they tend to cause too much of a racket, especially when handling a situation as delicate as this."

"What's wrong with you!" Leukos yelled.

"Nothing, nothing at all. I'm just fulfilling my purpose." The others were slowly getting up, acknowledging the threat.

"What about the bomb!" Vivi yelled suddenly as the clock ticked down.

"Oh? How quaint. You're looking at the bomb." Goku pointed at himself, taking up a cocky stance. "I'm sure he won't mind if I'm a few minutes late in turning this place into a crater."

"Why Goku? Why would you work for him?" I yelled.

"Do you know why I was spared? Do you know what I have done with my life? Avarus explained all of it to me. I was born to destroy, and all I did with my life was fulfill that purpose; despite everything I did."

"But Goku..."

"Don't call me that anymore. I've moved past the man I once was, I'm Kakarot; son of Bardok, a Saiyan, a Warrior. From the day I killed my grandfather until now, all I have done is hurt and destroy; because I rejected who I was. Now, I was told not to kill you two, but I believe the rest of you are fair game." His body shimmered in its own power as he looked over the people gathered around him. "Time to put you out of your misery." He vanished, and the next second Usopp was flying into a wall. I tried to keep up, but as I turned I felt my body fall. He filled my vision for a second before vanishing again. I hit the ground hard. By the time I had scrambled back onto my feet I saw Sanji and Zoro charging; in a single motion they both collapsed to the ground.

"What the hell is he!" Ranma yelled, as he moved closer to me.

"He used to be Son Goku, he was easily the strongest fighter we had on our team." I said, both blades drawn.

"Ha, better'n me? I doubt it." Ranma said, cracking his knuckles.

"Wait! We're going to have to attack together. Regardless of how strong he was before, Avarus will have only increased his power." Ranma hesitated and then nodded.

"You got that Marimo?"

"Just keep up eyelashes." Zoro and Sanji were back on their feet; Kakarot seemed to be scanning the area, his eyes locked in on Ukyo.

"Ah, the cook! I think I'll leave you for last." His hand shot out, instead pointed at Chopper who had moved to go help Usopp. "The healer on the other hand." A bolt of light flew from his hand, Chooper barely jumped out of the way.

"Now!" I yelled as I charged in on Kakarot's exposed back. I felt my blade slide past his face as his knee went into my gut. Then I was flying backwards as the others piled in.


	16. Chapter 16

**Ranma**

There was a heavy impact as Zoro and Sanji both planted heavy blows on Kakarot, halting whatever attack he was going to use. He seemed surprised for a moment, but a quick burst of energy sent the two sprawling backwards.

"Hissatsu Kemuri Boshi!" I turned towards the sound of the yell and only spotted a pellet smash right into Kakarot's eye. An instant later a huge jet of smoke burst out. I grinned seeing our chance. The five of us rushed him as he tried to clear his eyes; but as the smoke cleared away, he was standing perfectly unharmed. I jumped back from an electrical shock as did Chopper and Sanji. With a simple spin Kakarot knocked away Ukyo and Zoro.

"That's just getting annoying now."

"Stand back guys!" Ukyo suddenly yelled as she held her spatula out in front of her. "I think I figured this out!" Electricity was rampaging up and down her tool. "Bolt!" She swung and a burst of lightning flew out of the end of the weapon. However Kakarot was again unfazed. I could see Pahhur and Leukos starting to get up, but Kakarot shot towards them.

"Sorry, can't kill you two." He grabbed them and quickly pitched them across the city before turning to the rest of us. "I've got a schedule to keep, so it's been fun!" He suddenly launched into the air; I felt the heat and pressure increase as he began charging energy into his hand. I turned to the others.

"Guys get Vivi and Nami out of here. Save as many people as you can. Go!"

"Ran-chan"

"Go! I think I can stop him. But I'd rather not risk your lives on it." As the others shuffled away I moved myself under where Kakarot was hovering.

"Brave move thinking you can stand up to me alone. This should demolish the whole city except the palace, as per Crocodile's orders." He was holding a small glowing golden ball. "Just try to stop it." He threw it right at me, as I hoped he would. I felt the intense heat radiating off that ball of energy, it wasn't going to be an easy target to hit, but I chilled myself; prepared, waited, until the blast was sitting just outside the range of my fist. Then I unloaded everything I had right at the center of the blast.

"Hiryuu Shoten Ha! Piercing Rebound!" As I had hoped the blast changed directions, the heat around me was already swirling, the burst of cold energy dispersed the blast and flung it backwards towards Kakarot in the form of a tornado. The energy struck him in waves, before finally engulfing him entirely. I knelt to recover my energy as quickly as I could in case I had to do that again; sure enough Kakarot was still hovering there, the blast had done some damage, I could see places where he was bleeding a little, but it was mostly superfluous wounds. He grinned as he floated down to me.

"I can see you are going to be a problem." With that he slammed his foot into my back, immediately I could feel my legs go numb. He delivered another heavy blow and the numbness just spread out. I couldn't even tell if he was still kicking me when I heard the ground rumbling under me. He grabbed my hair and lifted me so I was looking in his eyes.

"Looks like you were lucky this time kid. But remember the lesson I taught you today." He dropped me then vanished before I blacked out.

"Ran-chan!" I blinked awake to see Ukyo sitting over me. I was in a bed and had the familiar feeling of being heavily bandaged. "He's awake!" Chopper walked in with his equipment.

"What happened?"

"When Luffy finished off Crocodile, Kakarot left." I tried to sit up but couldn't.

"Don't move, your back was badly injured, you're going to have to stay down for a few weeks in order to heal up."

"Cassandra is on her way today to see if she can speed things up. Tech's also coming because it sounds like we settled a pretty good deal with the King. We're giving them a stable source of water among other things, in exchange for troops and food. So tech is coming to see to all the technical details of that." I relaxed.

"So we're getting out of here soon I take it?"

"Pah's talking to Luffy, they're thinking of setting up some sort of tag so we can know whenever Luffy enters an area we can open portals into."

"Well at least the important thing is, no more effing sand!"


	17. Chapter 17

**Ukyo**

"So it looks like whatever you did to my spatula was a pretty permanent solution.. Ryoga can't even bend it anymore." I said as I walked with Leukos towards the hospital.

"We need to talk to Tech about what happened."

"You know he'll just take my spatula for god only knows how long."

"I know, but if we can figure out how and what I did we could get a real advantage here."

"Alright, we'll go after we get Ranma out of the hospital. We're really lucky the other two are still off strangling each other somewhere." I heard a bone-chilling laugh as we approached and rounded the corner to see Kodachi standing with her brother. "Then again, I'm the one left with the crazies."

"Alright, what're you two doing here?"

"I am merely here to assist in my darling's recovery. I brought him along for the extra muscle."

"Be that as it may, I refuse to be used by the likes of you. I have only joined you to ensure that Saotome's evil is brought to an end."

"Why didn't 'cha do that while he was bedridden?"

"It would be dishonorable to kill a man in his sleep."

"Dr. Tofu beat'cha up."

"He, aggressively, insisted I leave Saotome be. That was all." The door slid open and Tofu looked around before turning back to Ranma.

"Alright, remember to take it easy. Tell your father light exercise only; your body's only barely back in one piece." Ranma staggered out, scowling as he did so.

"Prepare to die!" Kuno yelled immediately, and before he could take two steps I smashed the flat end of my spatula over his head. The electricity immediately channeled down through his body causing a few small popping explosions and his hair to catch fire before he hit the ground.

"Oh ignore my brutish brother, come I have prepared a feast!" Ranma just stared at her.

"Kodachi, even if I hadn't eaten in a week, I wouldn't eat anything you cooked."

"Oh, don't be so coy. You always enjoy my cooking!" Ranma seemed to be thinking about how to respond to this, but I decided to break this up.

"Get away from him!" I swung my spatula again, the electricity arcing out in a few directions and forcing Kodachi to jump away.

"Harpy! Why do you seek death?" She prepared her steel edged ribbon and I sighed. I didn't feel like fooling around with her today, so I took a quick step under her attack and slammed her in the face with my spatula; causing a similar reaction to her brother.

"Now that that's over with we can get back to my place Ranma-Honey..." I had to look before I spotted my Ranma, burnt and lying on the ground. "Who did this to you?" I asked as I helped him back to his feet.

"Life really can't be boring with you guys around." Leukos sighed as I met him in Tech's room after dropping Ranma off.

"So let's see this." Tech said nearly jumping on me and taking the spatula. "I was telling Leukos, you guys really should just tell me about these things when they happen. I can't tell you how long I was waiting to examine this."

"It's only been like that for a couple days." I retorted.

"It's only been a couple days? Huh... Well, what you have here is a Legendary Item."

"A what?" He tossed it back to me. "Wait you're already done?" He only half turned towards me.

"What do you take me for. That is a Legendary Item, a Holy Relic, a Magical Weapon. There's tons of names for these things, but they all have one commonality. They channel elemental power. You say Leukos hit it with a bolt of lightning?"

"Yeah I was tricked into firing, and almost hit her."

"Normally that would have killed her. The spatula is basically a giant metal pole." Tech said, he was already toying with something else.

"I'm just glad she survived."

"Leukos can you hit this with the same bolt?" He held out a large metal bar. Leukos did so, and after a moment Tech pounded it with a hammer, it dented inward. "So it wasn't the bolt... Leukos can you hold a small charge between your fingers?" The room lit up a little as Leukos did as he was asked. "Ukyo, stick your finger in that current please."

"What?"

"It's for science."

"Leukos, let's get out of here."

"Agreed." 

"Wait, wait, wait! Listen, I think Ukyo has electrical powers of her own."

"What?" Tech cleared his throat.

"Everything in this world vibrates at its own pace, from rocks to people. Human vibrations tend to vary vastly, as different people vibrate closer to different elements. People are attracted to certain things, and tend to be very different from one another. Those vibrations can be generalized into the twenty-three base energies that build this world."

"Okay, what does any of that has to do with Ukyo sticking her finger in a light socket?" Leukos asked. Tech sighed.

"I think Ukyo has the ability to create and channel electrical energy."

"Really? Cool!" I said and turned to Leukos. He sighed and created a channel. I felt a shock run through my hand, but it wasn't necessarily painful, just different. When I pulled my hand away I could see a small spark resting on my finger.

"So, combine Ukyo's gift, with Leukos' energy." Tech picked up the metal bar. "Hold this." I knew what he was about to have happen and braced myself for the inevitable blast of energy.

"Still not working..." Tech said as he slammed the bent bar with a hammer. "What am I missing in this?" The door slammed open behind us and Ranma and Ryoga fell in.

"Tech! We need to go... Now!"


	18. Chapter 18

**Ranma**

"Calm down. Okay, what happened." Tech said after our breathing slowed down.

"Ryoga messed up big time." I said.

"Shut up Ranma, this is as much your fault as it is mine."

"I'm not the person who neglected to tell my fiancee we were leaving the entire Dimension!"

"I thought she would be safer staying behind."

"So Akari is still back at home?" Ukyo asked. Tech scowled.

"We were just talking to Metudo, he said Akari was with you guys in that fight, she's a target." Tech pulled out a list.

"She wouldn't be the only one. This is a list of the people that joined us on the raid. They are all targets." I looked over the list and saw a lot of old names, Herb, Ryu, Shinnosuke, Taro. Old enemies, mostly turned friend.

"We need to go save them." I said after looking over the list for a moment.

"I'll get the portal ready." Tech said. "Ukyo, I'm assigning these two to you. Go bring these people back."

A few minutes later the three of us were stepping out onto familiar ground. The front of Furinkan High. Or what was left of it.

The entire area seemed decimated, ruins and rubble, and strangest of all was the silence. Almost unbearable.

"The hell?"

"Ranma-honey, look at this." Ukyo said, pointing at some bullet holes in a crumbling wall.

"It looks like Solarus came through here." I said. "We're too late."

"Ranma? Ranma Saotome?" I turned to the sound of a familiar voice and saw one of my old school friends, Daisuke.

"Daisuke! What happened?!"

"Some weird people came through here, destroyed everything. They had an army with them." He looked very weak.

"How long ago?"

"I dunno, maybe a week or two. Its hard to tell. I don't even know why I was spared." I pulled out some food rations and handed them to him, he ate quickly. "Thanks."

"Do you know which way they were headed?"

"Dunno, looked like North."

"That sounds like the direction Akari lives!" Ryoga yelled suddenly and ran off.

"Well he's right, but he's already running in the wrong direction." Ukyo said as I headed off to turn him around.

We sent Daisuke through a portal and soon we were all going the right way, with me walking a bit behind Ryoga to make sure he didn't wander; and also because his skin was thick enough to deflect Solarus bullets. I saw trees up ahead and realized we were catching up. Unfortunately, we were spotted first. A barrage of bullets spewed over our heads and we ducked down to avoid them.

"Ryoga, lets go under them!" I yelled over the bullet spray.

"Right! Bakusai Tenketsu!"

"Okay we need a plan." I said as soon as we were effectively buried.

"If they even touch Akari, I'm going to beat them into a slimy pulp!" Ryoga growled.

"I said a plan, calm down. We can't do Akari any good if we're dead." I said.

"We could make a diversion." Ukyo said.

"That might work, one person going ahead to secure Akari while the other two keep the enemy busy." I said.

"I'll go get Akari!" Ryoga said.

"Listen, we can't keep them busy for a month while you find your way." Ukyo said. "I'll go, I'm the second fastest here, Ranma's strength will be needed for the fight."

"Alright, but promise me nothing is going to happen to her." Ukyo nodded as Ryoga began making two tunnels.


	19. Chapter 19

**Ranma**

Unfortunately, we didn't get far before our tunnel was flooded with water. The pressure quickly shattered the ground and squirted us out over what looked like a cliff. I grabbed Ukyo as Ryoga's little feet gripped onto my hair painfully. My hand grasped a branch that managed to hold us up as the water became a trickle.

"Ranma Saotome. I was hoping you would show up." I recognized that voice and looked up the cliff face to see Pantyhose Taro grinning down at us.

"Pantyhose Taro! Help us up!" I yelled.

"Don't call me that!" He yelled as he jumped down to kick me in the face.

"Sucker." I muttered as I quickly freed my hand and used his body as a springboard to jump back to safety. Almost as soon as I landed Ryoga scurried off, probably to find hot water.

"Ranma!" I turned to see Shampoo running towards the two of us. Ukyo prepared her spatula.

"Shampoo? What're you doing here?" As I asked she landed both her knees in my face, shoving me right off the cliff. I took a moment to recover and realize I was still falling; then I spotted something below, flying up. It looked like Taro, but he wasn't transformed. Resolved to solve this, and transfer what would be my pain to someone else, I spun a little so that I would crash into him.

Sure enough it was Taro, and he had a pair of wings, and wasn't in his minotaur state. Sadly, those wings couldn't lift both of us, and I dragged him down with me.

"Saotome! Why do you persist in irritating me!" He hissed as he tried to push himself away from me. However I had already committed myself to crashing and using him to soften the blow. Then his arm turned into an octopus tentacle.

"What?" Was all I could get out before I was caught in his grip. He righted himself and slowed his decent before spinning and pitching me at the ground.

I was lucky the ground was still wet from the water earlier. I was still bruised, and annoyed as I got back up to see Taro hovering down towards me.

"So what do you think Saotome?" He gloated as he landed and his wings shriveled into his body.

"What did you do to yourself this time!" I said, preparing for a fight.

"Let me tell you a story, Saotome. Of a man, isolated due to his name."

"Yeah can you skip the sob story and get to the damned point?" He glared at me for a moment.

"Fine. Not even two days ago a person who looked exactly like me came to kill me. Of course I destroyed him, but his Master offered me power, the power of control."

"You can't mean..."

"Yes, I control the transformation, at will! Now I'll give you one guess what I did with this power."

"Knowing you, you'd go hop in every... spring... aww shit." His hand shifted until it was larger, with thick claws at the ends.

"Now you will know my suffering! Taste the true power of Awesome Taro!" I didn't know what hurt more, the new name on the claw across my face; still I recovered quickly and tried to get out of his rapidly changing range. However, even as his clawed arm extended a full three feet from his body, his fingers became tendrils to pursue me further.

"That's right! Run! You stand no chance against me!" I ducked under his incoming tendrils, trying to get them to loop around each other, however as they touched they fused together into some sort of hole and black ink coated my vision. Before I could recover I was being dragged back towards Taro.

"So the girly boy finally falls." He said almost right into my ear.

"Don't call me that..." I said before readying my energy. "Moko Takabisha!" With a burst of energy I freed myself from his grip and began laying into him at my maximum speed. Despite not being able to see I could still feel my punches going deep into softening flesh.

"Poor Ranma, even your best techniques stand no chance again the new me." I began focusing my blows so they dug deeper into the thick flesh. "You might as well give up now." I felt my fist sink down to my shoulder in his flesh; and released another burst of energy there. I struggled to put enough force behind the blast, to push it and him away from me, but I eventually had to go with what I had gotten and detonated it.

I felt stringy, goopy flesh land across my face and quickly rubbed it and the ink out of my eyes. I blinked through the ink that was still in my eyes to see Taro's fist filling my vision. I felt another heavy hand dig deep into my gut, forcing the air out of my lungs.

"You just don't give up do you Ranma!" I struggled to stand under his barrage. "Kneel to the new me, and I might let you live!" Another blow across my back sent me sprawling to the ground. But I struggled to my feet despite the pain. His fists were at least the size of his body now, and he moved to attack again. I used my speed to my advantage and danced just outside of his range, prompting another attack rather than convincing him to extend his reach.

He gave chase as I hoped he would, as I lured him into my last chance. Four more steps, three, two, he stopped.

"I'm not falling for that Ranma. You've used it on me too many times." His arms stretched out into barbed tendrils and he moved to encircle me. I barely moved out of the way, and still was slapped into the dirt by a follow up attack. His other tendril landed, and soon I was dealing with a nearly constant lashing, pummeling me into the dirt.

My body was at its limits, pain was starting to tunnel my vision and my breathing was getting shallower by the second. I felt warmth beneath me. Possibly my own blood. Then I realized I felt it running through the ground, faintly. Throughout where I had stepped I could feel it as if it were still attached to me. My spiral pattern still etched into the face of the planet. Could I use it? Would it move for me? What else did I have to lose?

"Hiryu Shoten Ha Revised! Risen Earth!" I slammed the last of my energy into the ground and felt it respond. The ground bubbled under me, and pushed me out of the way as it rose up in a funnel catching Taro in its blast. I blinked to see the funnel of earth flying upwards, even as Taro tried to grow wings and escape it caught and buried him before slamming him into the cliff face, where he finally was hung, limp, embedded in the rock.


	20. Chapter 20

**Ukyo**

"You're not going to get away with that!" I growled as I drew my spatula.

"What you talk about? Shampoo just make little accident."

"You aren't fooling me, Shampoo is with Akane on a mission." Her face changed immediately.

"I guess that means I can go ahead and kill you now." She drew two small blades that shimmered in the low light.

"Don't think I'm anything like you remember." I swung, channeling my new power along the arc of my swing.

"That all?" She was behind me, and I felt her cut deep into my back. "The other Ukyo can do that in her sleep." I recovered a little distance and turned to start the fight anew, but she was on top of me before I could react.

**Ryoga**

I tried to shake off my worry as I ran, my little pig feet slipping along the rocks. I needed either hot water or Akari, and I had no clue as to where to find either; but I figured she had to be close. I stumbled into a field where a large group of Solarus were laying waste to a town.

I slipped right past them, and they paid me not the slightest bit of attention. I hoped I recognized the town as I scurried along.

"Ryoga?" I recognized that voice and turned to see Akari crouching against a wall. I squealed and leapt into her waiting arms.

"Thank goodness you're still alive. I went by the Saotome's place only to find it wasn't there anymore. I was so worried..." I tried making some noise, and she finally noticed. "Oh, you want some hot water. Hold on." She pulled out a small heated pot and dumped it over me.

The suit rapidly gave me new clothes as I got up.

"Akari, we have to get out of here."

"Ryoga?" Tech's voice came in suddenly. "Ryoga, what's going on? I lost your signal for a while."

"Who's that Ryoga?"

"Listen, Akari. A lot has happened, and it'll take time to explain. Just trust me, so we can get out of here."

"What's the situation?"

"The Solarus are everywhere. It's... it's terrible."

"I'm sending in reinforcements."

"There are shadows here as well."

"Do what you can and get out of there. There's a nexus not too far north of your location."

"The others are probably still fighting."

"I'll try everything I can to help them." I turned to Akari as the comm-link went dead.

"Which way is north?"

**Ukyo**

I coughed hard, and tasted blood in my mouth. It took all my strength to stand up and face Shampoo's shadow.

"I have to hand it to you, you're tough; but that only counts for so much. I'm going to enjoy killing you." I spat out the blood sloshing around in my mouth and focused. She was approaching, slowly for how I'd seen her move so far; like a cat preparing for the kill. My mind raced for a solution, something I could use to turn this fight around.

Sensing her prey was close to death she broke into a charge, at that moment my mind went clear. I knew what I had to do. I flipped my spatula around and smashed the tip into my gut. Immediately I felt electricity running through my veins, burning me up. But my trick worked. Shampoo had struck at precisely the same time, and her blade, now stuck in my shoulder was sending the electrical current right through her body.

"Being strong doesn't cut it either." I managed to spit before my strength faded away and I blacked out.


	21. Chapter 21

**Jato**

"What happened!" I jumped a little as Ranma shot up out of her bed.

"It's alright, we found you at the foot of a cliff under a few rocks."

"Is Akane back yet?"

"No." He seemed to agonize over that for a moment.

"What about Akari? Ukyo? Hell Japan in general?"

"We got Akari and Ukyo out, and we left Pah and Zephos to try and press back against the Solarus. Hopefully they can keep your world safe long enough to get reinforcements from somewhere."

"So there's another mission."

"Yes."

"I'm going."

"No, actually I'm here to pick up my third. Ryoga wasn't as badly hurt as the two of you were, and you in-particular are still recovering from your fight with Goku. So you are staying put." He looked like he wanted to argue, but Ryoga walked in the last of his bandages removed.

"You should focus on resting Ranma. I'll handle this."

"Don't worry we're going with Thorium."

"Why does that make me more concerned?"

"Just try to get some rest."

Within a few minutes we were through the portal and standing in the middle of an arena.


	22. Chapter 22

**Jato**

"Ma Teki Sandan Sha!" I ducked as a batch of ice shards flew over my head. I quickly noticed the crowd, and the sudden silence that had fallen across the stage.

"Who?"

"Why?"

"Where?"

"Sorry we dropped in like that! We'll get out of the way." I said as I moved for the edge of the arena, only to see Solarus rushing towards us.

"Well this is a bit unprecedented, three people have simply appeared out of thin air. Hopefully they can Clear the Stage and with a little investigation we can learn more. In the meantime I'd like to continue the bloodshed!" I spotted the announcer, a girl with big fox ears. I blinked, trapped between a fight on one side and a fight on the other.

"I think I said get off the damned stage!"

"I'll get them off." I turned in time to see the ice shards heading my way.

"Punch through the Solarus!" I yelled and drew my staff. I knocked away the first few that had been climbing onto the stage and noticed something. None of them were firing, if anything they were acting like guards.

"Something's not right here." Thorium muttered.

"Don't drop your guard yet, but lets stop attacking for now." I said. I stepped off the stage and rather than attacking the Solarus opened a path for us to leave.

We were held up in a waiting area for a bit until eventually someone led us to a place where there were a lot of really ugly people. I didn't recognize any of them.

"So, how did you get on this island?" The person at the head of the table, a young man and possibly the only handsome person in the room.

"We uh, just sorta fell, I guess." Ryoga said.

"Listen, what's going on here? Why are you employing Solarus?"

"I'll be asking the questions here, now tell me honestly how did you get to this island?"

"It's a secret." Thorium said.

"We came here from another dimension. The portal technology isn't all that advanced and we tend to drop a distance." I finally said. "Now, answer my question. What are the Solarus doing here?" The man considered us for a moment.

"How about if you win this tournament I'll tell you?"

"Sakyo, you know that's against the rules."

"Yes, but I don't trust that thing. These people seem to be on the opposing side; I say we let them fight. Perhaps we can find some answers ourselves?" The other men seemed to consider it for a moment.

"Alright Sakyo, but I have one condition. They have to defeat and take over one of the existing teams."

"Sounds reasonable Butajiri."

"Ooh, then I recommend they fight Team Gorenja, they're in top form right now."

"I agree. You wouldn't happen to have more members would you?"

"Why?"

"Because you need five people to participate in this tournament." I heard Tech come in over my communication device and nodded.

"Yes, we'll have two more arrive by tonight."

"Very well, tomorrow morning we will hold your match against Team Gorenja."

We were led to a room.

"So Tech's sending two more?"

"Yes, we should expect Moot and Mousse to arrive soon."


	23. Chapter 23

**Jato**

I hadn't noticed it yesterday, but the crowd was Ugly today.

"Since we have a special circumstance today this will be a single elimination round, meaning five versus five. The winner will get a spot in the semi-finals as well as a few special items to bring them up to full strength after the fight. Why these five have been given this chance is beyond me, but I won't complain about free bloodshed! So without further ado, the current participants Team Gorenja!"

The opposing five stepped onto the stage to a cheering crowd. They looked mostly human except for the fifth who looked sort of like a goblin.

"And the surprise newcomers Team Warrior!"

"This looks like it'll be fun!"

"You promised to behave yourself while you were here Moot." I said.

"Right right."

"Oy the stage is over here you two!" Thorium yelled dragging Mousse and Ryoga up. "Wear you're damn glasses."

"We don't want a clean match guys, so make sure this gets really bloody!" There was a gong and the fight began. Immediately three of them dashed towards us. I barely kept up with them and didn't notice the fourth charging towards me until he was almost on top of me. His sword swing was halted however by Ryoga, who pushed his arm back.

"Lucky! We got a bunch of weaklings today." Mousse yelled as his chains wrapped around the legs of two of the others. I felt the leader close in on me from behind and with a simple swing knocked him backwards.

It was really over in an instant, Ryoga had folded his opponent down, Moot was teasing another while Thorium bound each of them.

"Man, this is why I hate humans. They rarely give us a good show to enjoy ourselves. Well, at least after the semi-finals are next and we can see these guys really go for it." We started to get off the stage when she spoke up again.

"Hang on folks, it looks like there's been a change in plans, Team Toguro is entering the field now."

"Fine, this should be too hard then." Ryoga said.

"Toguro has decided it'll be one on one matches, winner has to stay in the ring until they are defeated. So let's welcome the newest member of Team Toguro; Abban, 49th General." My blood chilled as I saw a blue plated General step onto stage.

"No way." Thorium muttered.

"What's the plan?" Ryoga asked.

"It's one on one, we can't win."

"What?"

"We barely beat one of those things with about six of us fighting it at once. And this one is stronger than the last." I muttered.

"Let me fight it then." Ryoga said.


	24. Chapter 24

**Ryoga**

"Watch closely, if its as strong as you guys say, then analyze it while I fight. I'll hold out as long as I can." I said as I stepped into the arena.

"I hope you have built some form of strategy, it would be boring for you to just die here."

"Yeah, I'm going to beat you here and now! Unless you want to tell me what you and your troops are doing here."

"Can't you tell? We're here to take part in the games."

"Stop lying!" I yelled and broke into a charge. It stepped aside, quick but not quick enough. I spun mid-charge and threw my momentum behind my fist. It blocked my blow with it's own hand and kneed me in the gut. I spat up a little blood but managed to keep my ground. So far this wasn't much different from fighting Ranma.

"I've been wondering, you guys aren't exactly alive are you? Bakusai Tenkentsu!" I yelled, focusing on finding the breaking point of the creature's armor. It caught my hand again.

"That technique would be devastating to my troops, unfortunately it is nothing more than a weak punch to me."

"I just wanted to make sure you were close. Shi Shi Hokudan!" It took my seconds to pull together enough depressing thoughts to turn into a solid blast of energy. At this range that was all I needed. It flew backwards with my attack, but ground its heels into the arena floor.

"Amazing, I didn't know the Iron Skinned Ryoga had magic before being trained. Or have you undergone new training since being recruited?"

"Why don't you come over here and find out?" I taunted, gathering all of my depressing thoughts, letting their weight fill my body.

"I have a better idea." He was suddenly in front of me. With a kick I was sent flying. I blinked and the stadium was vanishing from my sight. I blinked again and I was plummeting towards the sea.

**Mousse**

"My turn."

"Mousse, let me go." Thorium asked.

"No, especially not you. You're untrained and it shows."

"That's why I'm asking to go first. Trust me, I have a strategy."

"If you are having trouble deciding, I'm willing to take the rest of you two at a time."

"Alright, you two stay back here and be ready to make a move." I said as I entered the arena with Thorium.

"Shame I cannot kill one of them, I might as well make due with killing this one." It closed in on me quickly, but I wasn't one to be caught off guard. I let loose a wave of chains, spinning so they would knock back anything approaching. It's body seemed to become fluid as it slipped between the chains and continued to close distance. I jumped back as a wall of metal appeared between us.

I turned to see Thorium's chain extended, his body was encased in metal.

"Like I said, I have a strategy." He charged in towards our opponent.

"Amusing. Still, if you are like this then I don't need to hold back." Addan said, turning to face Thorium. I took the opportunity to draw a long blade from my robes and attack from behind. It pounded into Thorium, despite his coating he was sent flying into the far wall. At the same time my blade cut deep into the creature's backside.

It turned to me, wrenching my blade away from my hand. I took another step back and launched a barrage of kunai. Again it's body seemed to become fluid as it slipped between my daggers. It clutched my throat and launched me into the wall. I couldn't move, even as the ten count ended.

"Alas, I didn't manage to kill a single one. Ah well, there's always the after-game."

"Why don't you let some of the others have a go?" A smaller man on the opposing side said. "Karasu and Bui are getting restless."

"By rules of last-man standing we have to allow this match to continue, but we're getting a request to allow the final two matches to be one-on-one change matches." The announcer called. I finally managed to sit up as Moot agreed to enter the ring with Karasu.


	25. Chapter 25

**Moot**

I paced the arena slowly, watching Karasu closely. He kicked off towards me and gracefully brushed his hand down my back before I realized what was going on.

"Shame you don't seem to be that much of a warm-up." He stepped away and I heard a series of popping noises. My back hurt a bit, I spun my head to look and spotted a couple of light burns.

"The hell was that?"

"I underestimated you, I apologize. To be barely wounded by those bombs, you must be a strong demon."

"I'm not a demon!"

"Could you at least have your head on straight before you say that!" Jato yelled into the ring.

"Oh, right. I forgot." I pulled my head off and corrected myself. "Like I said, I'm not a demon! I'M HUMAN!" Somehow the arena became really quiet.

"C-can we just start the next match?" Jato asked the referee. Karasu broke into a slight chuckle.

"Interesting. I'm sorry, but you've made me happy. I'm going to have to kill you; be you human or demon." I felt a tremor run up my arm. Another explosion. But other than the light and heat generated by the blast, most of the damage was shrugged off by my shield.

"I'm not really sure what kind of attack you're using, but I guess I better get this over with." I drew out my weapon and started spinning the chain to get a good speed when another explosion interrupted the chain, forcing it to the ground.

I reeled in the scythe blade and decided to charge in close. Again there were explosions, but again my shield soaked them up as I approached Karasu. He maneuvered out of my attack and struck me back. At close quarters the two of us began trading blows, but every time he pushed my punches or slashes out of the way there was another explosion.

Eventually my shield started to deteriorate, my energy draining away as he kept up his relentless assault. I had barely hit him. I had maybe cut his suit, a little. With one solid hit I collapsed backwards, my stamina drained.

"Now the finale." He said as he stroked my face. My vision was clouded by another explosion as the referee's countdown ended.

"The match is over! Victory goes to Karasu!"

**Jato**

This was ridiculous. Such an absolute defeat by someone not even working with Avarus. I gulped as my turn was now up. I got up on stage, ready to face the giant Bui.

"The last of the warm-up fights, newcomer Jato versus Bui!"

"You don't need to come out and say these are warm-ups!" I yelled.

"Even if it's true?" The referee returned. I sighed.

"Right, right, let's just get this over with." My opponent had already created a huge battle ax and was swinging it lightly. I could tell by the heft and swing that despite its weight he had absolutely no problems using it.

"Start!" He charged in on me with blinding speed. I blocked the first blow, barely. The second knocked me off my feet. Both happened before I could blink. I was hoping to uncover something about how this guy fought, but already I could tell he wasn't going to have to use much more than those insane swings to beat me to exhaustion.

While I was thinking a third blow knocked me right out of the ring. Rather than get up and keep fighting, I decided to stay put and start thinking of how to set up an ambush for that General.

I was still thinking after being released from the medical facilities. I wandered to the hotel when someone caught my eye. I turned to follow a red haired young man as he walked out.

After a few minutes he paused.

"I saw your match today." He said suddenly, and I jumped. I had forgotten how perceptive Kurama tended to be. "What do you hope to accomplish by following me? Revenge?"

"Actually no... You just remind me of a friend."


	26. Chapter 26

**Jato**

"So, what would it mean if I chose to believe your tale?" Kurama asked as he sat back on the rock he had been using as a chair.

"Just that you should be careful. Most likely Avarus' true goal is killing you guys before you can become a threat."

"Kurama! What're you doin' all the way over there!" I turned to see Kuwabara approaching us. "Who's this guy?"

"Oh, just a passing acquaintance."

"Oh okay. By the way I heard that Genki is still sick, so we should probably try to find someone to fill in for her."

"You guys have a free slot?"

"Due to an unforeseen circumstance, yes." Kurama said.

"Let me fight."

"What?" Kuwabara said.

"I have a score to settle against that General. Let me handle the match!"

"Hahahaha! You can't be serious!? A scrawny guy like this?" I scowled at Kuwabara.

"Alright." Kurama said.

"Whaaaaat?"

"Thank you."

"No, I veto this decision!"

"If Genki, awakens, in the morning there will be no need for a replacement. In the meantime we need to fill that last spot." Kuwabara rounded on me.

"Alright, but just remember, you're on a temporary basis, got that? Punk?"

We left to their apartment suite and eventually two others, Yusuke and Hiei showed up. Neither one gave me a second look; and instead headed right to bed

The next day couldn't come soon enough. The established rules were one on one fights best three out of five. As the opening ceremonies concluded the matches began. Addan chose to step up first. I took the stage as well.

"I was hoping to kill one of the other guys this match."

"Too bad. I'm going to take you down right here!" I drew my staff, but by the time I had taken my stance it had already vanished. I felt pain run down my leg and tried to spin with the blow. I tried to strike, but again it was dancing out of range.

The fight rapidly became one sided, he was tearing me apart with little difficulty, its movements flowed together making it hard to spot and harder to block.

With one stroke I was on my back again. A kick later and I was out of the ring. I crawled out and ran back to the stage, but before I could make it Addan kicked me back out into the stands.

"Jato wait!" I turned to see Thorium, Moot and Mousse sitting nearby.

"Ten! Match goes to Addan!"

"What's wrong with you guys!" I rounded on them.

"Chill, it's goal is to kill Yusuke and his friends right? So he'll obviously try something during the match. Then we all jump him."

"Are you guys okay to fight?"

"Well enough."

"Did you manage to find Ryoga?"

"Haven't looked."

"What have you been doing?"

"The popcorn here is pretty good..." Thorium said, ending the conversation.

"Shush! We're missing the next match!" Moot said as he stole some of Thorium's popcorn. I turned to see Kurama entering the ring against Karasu.

"Begin!"

"To defeat you, I will transform." Kurama said, as a flurry of petals surrounded him. Undeterred Karasu waltzed right into the midst of the petal storm. Immediately the petals swarmed towards him, but burst into flames the second they got close.

"Hehe, did you perhaps, underestimate my power?" Karasu said as he approached Kurama. Before Kurama could react Karasu leapt over him, and grazed past his shoulder. Kurama's arm burst open, leaving a gaping wound.

Karasu began taunting Kurama rather quietly, but eventually held out his right hand acting like there was something there. A few seconds later something that looked like three sticks of dynamite appeared in his hand. He threw it.


	27. Chapter 27

Author's Note: Sorry it's been a while. Twofold reasons, Christmas Break, and anxiety. A large part of my problem when it comes to this story is that I run a high risk of confusing and removing readers due to the number of worlds being dealt with. Which is why part of my story has kind of become recap of the other stories to reintroduce the characters. Unfortunately I'm also bad at description as I recently learned. So I'll be trying to fix that from here on out. Thank you to anyone still clinging on, I'll try to keep improving.

**Jato**

As the smoke cleared Kurama seemed to be replaced by a pale skinned man with extremely long white hair. His golden eyes flashed across the stage towards his opponent. His pointed fox-like ears swerved as he slowly licked up some of the blood dripping onto his loosely hanging white robe. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but the silence in the stands allowed his voice to carry like low thunder.

"That was close. The body of Shuuichi would have been blown to bits... A demon that can create bombs... I'm happy to meet someone so strong, but, I'm going to kill you!" The crowd erupted as the commentator began anew.

"Kurama has transformed into Youko-Kurama! However, it looks like the bomb did some damage! Who knows what will happen in this battle!" Karasu made a few gestures, and what was apparently Youko-Kurama responded by jumping backwards. The air exploded around him, but he stayed a few feet away. Then he came to a sudden stop, as if endangered, still his body oozed calm. For a second the two combatants stared each other down, then the ground erupted as enormous green tendrils shot forth then exploded in the air.

The tendrils sprouted a mouth like bulb, then down it's length grew six long tooth like leaves on either side, the rest of the plant was coated in thick rows of thorns.

All at once they swarmed Karasu who spun out of the way. One of the plants exploded, burning to cinders but one of the tendrils blind sided him, the leaves clutching onto him. His mask fell off as the remaining tendrils converged on his body until all anyone could see was a mass of greenery.

"That was amazing! It was settled in seconds! With his transformation, Kurama became an overwhelming force to deal with!" The commentator yelled as the judge picked up her mike.

"Considering that Karasu is incapacitated... Kurama is the Victor!" An explosion rocked the stage as the plants vanished in cinders. Karasu emerged, mostly unscathed.

"Who's incapacitated?"

"I'm sorry, it's my mistake! The match will continue!" The judge quick rescinded before scampering to the edge of the arena. Karasu took a deep breath, his body began shimmering with a golden light as his long black hair turned golden. Electricity crackled around him as he charged Youko-Kurama, and exploded shattering a chunk of the stadium.

As the dust settled the normal red-haired Kurama returned, bloody and dirty, but alive.

"Kurama is no longer in his demon form! Apparently that last explosion had a devastating effect on him!" The commentator yelled. Karasu strode towards him with all the intensity of a predator. However Kurama was undaunted and charged Karasu flowing quickly into a series of precise physical blows. Which Karasu dodged with amazing speed and grace. Until finally Kurama landed a two handed palm strike right into Karasu's torso. However Karasu seemed unfazed, even as he reached into his new wound and pulled out a small seed. It vanished in a puff of flame, and seconds later Kurama's leg exploded in a fount of blood and flesh.

"Kurama! Don't move! You're surrounded!" Yusuke yelled from the edge of the ring. And Kurama froze up, after a tense second small explosions began littering his body, ripping clothing and shredding flesh away. After another few choice explosions Kurama collapsed, bleeding heavily. The crowd moved into a massive frenzy at the lust for blood.

Karasu moved in for the kill, but Kurama shimmered for a moment before a burst of plant-life grew out of him. It's tendrils shot out like bullets and pierced Karasu's heart. After a few tense seconds Kurama managed to climb back onto his feet.


	28. Chapter 28

Author's Note: It's been pointed out, not un-justly, that the Original Characters (Pah, Jato, Moot, etc.) Haven't been given a lot of character description, or much in the way of character period. There are two reasons for this.

I recently learned that I desperately suck at something within the creation of the characters. The common complaint being people can't 'see' the characters in their heads. Which is funny because I can't either, probably due to not being able to visualize things in my head almost at all. To combat this I got an artist and basically gave him free reign with the characters. And have basically been trying to describe what he draws. None of this excuses the lack of description, just pointing out that it is a problem I'm aware of and am actively working on. Every time this is pointed out I remind myself to try a bit harder. So thank you.

I started writing this Fan Fic in conjunction with the actual story Dimensional Warriors. The idea was that people would be following my progress with both on my main site pahhur. Blogspot. Com (Remove the spaces, deletes all web addresses automatically.) So I didn't want to bog readers down with the same story. I really should have expected to have two different audiences, but there you have it.

That said I am planning a story arc soon (basically as soon as I'm done with the tournament here, I'll wrap up the Trek mini-arc and just right into this new segment.) and that segment is going to have a heavy focus on the OC's so in theory they should become more well rounded as characters. In theory.

Again, thank you for all comments and criticisms. I very much appreciate it as it helps me grow as a writer. Now for tonight's chapter.

**Jato**

The crowd was wild as Kurama limped off the stage, Karasu's mangled corpse hung lifeless in the arena.

"The match is over!" The judge announced, licking her pale tail as she spun slightly. "The winner is Karasu!" As quickly as they had started the crowd went silent. To ease the confusion the judge explained. "I had started the ten count as soon as Kurama fell. His attack landed after the count was already over. So technically Karasu is the victor."

In response the crowd began a rallying cry of "One more win!" In support of what was apparently the house favorite. I returned my focus onto the stage and recognized the monstrous Bui entering the stage. His full body armor and massive ax made the stage seem small by comparison. At the other end, Hiei walked on, his diminutive stature almost invisible with his thick black cloak on he almost looked like a shadow.

Hiei tore his over cloak off, revealing a torn black shirt and a heavily bandaged right arm. The match started and Bui charged in with a quick swing. But missed Hiei by almost half the stage. Not deterred he pulled his ax from the stage, and a chunk of the stage with it. With one swing he lobbed the massive block of concrete toward Hiei.

Hiei prepared for the blow, but was thrown off when the block exploded in midair, Bui right behind it. Bui's ax was assured to hit at that distance, and technically it did. It also melted away to nothing once it hit Hiei's outstretched hand.

The crowd had grown silent, so we could hear Hiei's taunts. "I said, be serious! With no energy behind it, those attacks will never hit me. I'm disgusted."

"I see..." Bui's fine, deep voice almost sung out of his helm. "I suppose I should remove my armor then." He took of a shoulder pad, and tossed it. It sunk into the ground it landed on.

"Usually armor is for the protection of the wearer." Bui continued. "But mine is a little different. I wear it to control myself." He shed his helm revealing pale hair and a bloated starburst scar on his forehead. The crowd picked up again, reveling in Bui's confidence. Almost immediately Bui's body began producing an absurd amount of light, to the point that he began hovering a good foot off the ground.

Hiei just stared defiantly back at Bui and began unwrapping his bandaged arm, slowly. As he did I could make out a large black dragon tattoo running the length of his arm.

"Wow! Hiei is releasing and incredible amount of energy!" The announcer said. Hiei announced his attack.

"Ensatsu Kokuryuha!" As he did pitch black flames exploded around him, and flowed out along his arm; swirling through the air and taking on the shape of a dragon. Bui braced himself and took the attack head on; using his energy to protect himself. The dragon wrestled with trying to devour him and dragged him right off the platform and into the audience. I ducked as the fire sped over my head. Finally it smashed Bui through the ceiling, and far into the air. The two were gone for a moment, then the dragon came rushing back into the arena, aiming right for Hiei.

The arena exploded, Hiei vanished entirely; and the crowd cheered as Toguro's team scored their final win.

"What are you cheering for?" Hiei's voice cut off the judge as the flickering remains of the black fire began converging at one point. "The real show is just beginning." Hiei rematerialized, the tattoo on his arm completely gone. Bui seemed absolutely afraid at this point, his own energy depleted from fighting the dragon. He took a few nimble steps back as Hiei approached him; black fire leapt around Hiei, like wings.

Bui made a decision and dashed right in, landing a full force punch across Hiei's face. Hiei didn't even move; and with one palm, thrust deep into Bui's solar plexus, launching Bui into the air. With a simple jump Hiei not only caught up, but surpassed Bui's ascent, with another simple blow he fired Bui right into the audience, cratering the stands.

Hiei landed next to him for a moment, then returned to the shattered stage as the judge finished her ten count.

"The match is over! Hiei wins!" Our first victory.

The arena was in tatters now, most of the ceiling was gone, and a chunk of the stands too. There was a literal hole in the wall so massive you could drive a parade through it. Not to mention the stage itself had been broken into fifteen different pieces.

So we had a six hour wait while they replaced the stage. And finally Kuwabara made for the stage. He was wearing a white open coat of some sort, it looked strange even compared to the normal attire one finds in a demon nest. His brick-like face and bright orange hair completed the 'thug' look as he stared down his opponent.

On the other hand, the Elder Toguro as he was known, was short with long scraggly-black hair and a dark coat. His pale face made him look like a water bloated corpse as he stood calmly against Kuwabara.

"Begin!"

Kuwabara held out the hilt of a blade, and after a moment sparks of energy ran not only out of the hilt to form a blade, but also around his entire body. He charged at Toguro, who just stood there; until Kuwabara cut him from his left shoulder to his right kidney. The cut half flopped limply to one side.

Kuwabara stood there, stunned, as were the rest of us. Then I spotted something coming from underground, six long tendrils shot out and stabbed Kuwabara through the back before retreating. He fell as Toguro crawled out of the ground behind him. As he did he pulled a large mass of flesh out of the ground with him, connecting to the other Toguro that Kuwabara had cut.

He then began shifting his body, so his face broke in half and stretched out into the air on it's own. His fingers becoming tendrils before he finally resumed his normal shape. During his display he grabbed Kuwabara's hilt; and examined it for a moment.

Something Toguro said hit a nerve with Kuwabara and he began standing up; despite bleeding heavily. Toguro simply skewered Kuwabara's kneecaps with his tendrils again and Kuwabara was floored. As he laid there bleeding, Toguro began taunting him, changing his hand to resemble a young woman, then aging her, then stabbing her with his other hand.

This really affected him, as Kuwabara was standing again, his eyes clouded with anger. Toguro just kept taunting, then lashed out to strike with his tendril-like fingers again. However this time they could not penetrate Kuwabara's skin.


	29. Chapter 29

**Jato**

"Fucking Bastard just die!" Kuwabara yelled as he swung at Toguro. In an instant the impish freak fell into several different pieces as energy poured from Kuwabara's hand. Long slimy tendrils of flesh oozed out of the dissected parts of Toguro; within moments they reconnected themselves and he began standing.

He was taunting Kuwabara again, this time fingers grew slowly out of his hair, while his ear pulled away from his face, twisting a few times to make a point. With a gesture his fingers shot out again, this time pinning an exhausted Kuwabara to the ground. The ten count began as the echoing drone of the crowd filled my ears.

However Toguro didn't wait for the count to end as his arm melted into a long blade, he closed in for the kill. At the same time the empty hilt Toguro had tossed aside earlier shimmered with energy and began moving of its own volition towards Kuwabara. It spun in the air, dicing Toguro in a matter of seconds. Again Toguro's body began regenerating itself, each lost chunk of fleash pulling itself towards another. But before he could finish his repairs Kuwabara transformed the energy pulsing from the hilt. Now it resembled a novelty flyswatter or tennis racket. With only a moment of hesitation he slapped the mass of energy down on Toguro. A moment later he lifted the racket revealing nothing but pulp and blood.

"Kuwabara is the winner! Bringing the scores to 2-2!" The judge called. The teams below began shifting, preparing for the final round. The Young Toguro brother, and Yusuke. Toguro's towering form stepped into the ring at the behest of the judge, his commando haircut and pitch black sunglasses made him ooze cool across the stadium. Yusuke on the other hand waltzed out in his sweats, hair dancing in the wind. Even as the two walked in, the ground of the arena began cracking.

The Elder Toguro burst out of the ground, cackling madly.

"Now little brother! Use me as a weapon and let's finish this runt off!"

"Move." The younger sibling said as he walked up to his brother.

"What?"

"You're in the way." With a casual flick of his foot, the younger punted the elder high into the air. Yet the elder returned screaming at the top of his lungs, ready to strike. This ended badly, as the younger obliterated the elder with a single punch. Then returned to Yusuke.

The air hung heavy as Toguro tossed his thick trench coat aside, revealing his heavily muscled form.

"Final Match, Toguro versus Urameshi! Begin!" The judge called. Almost immediately Toguro's muscles began bulging, then growing larger, until he was at least twice his original size. The energy radiating from him began to dissolve the audience members that were closer to the ring. I felt it approaching, and turned to check the others. Nobody else seemed to be having problems enduring it, so I relaxed for now.

With not a crease in his face Yusuke charged Toguro head on, in a blink they exchanged blows and Yusuke had pulled back a bit. They began dancing around each other, Toguro was immeasurably quick especially for how large he was, but Yusuke was much faster, always landing just out of reach. Then all at once Yusuke stopped, ready to take a hit. Toguro also stopped, and I spotted someone in the crowd behind Yusuke that I recognized, Keiko.

The two fighters shifted positions, and Yusuke clasped his hands together. Energy was building in his hand, but that turned out to be a distraction as he kicked off the ground and closed distance. His hands were a blur as he delivered several punches to Toguro's abdomen. Finally Toguro retaliated with a kick, and Yusuke slid out of the way; and just barely jumped out of the way of a follow-up punch. The blow shattered the arena, chunks of rock flew everywhere, and I saw Yusuke take aim as he fell.

There was a burst of energy as his blast hit Toguro clean in his abdomen, consumed him, then continued onward to blow open a new hole in the already ruined arena walls, and then kept going until it was out of sight.

As the dust settled, the arena was just a hole in the ground, nothing more than a few chunks of stone left. Then, from the new hole in the arena entered Toguro, sunglasses obliterated, and pants badly torn. Otherwise he barely had some dust on him.

At first Yusuke was only shocked, then he began grinning. He tugged at the sweatbands he was wearing, revealing glowing yellow energy shaped like shackles around his wrists and ankles. With a word they vanished and his aura exploded outward. In an instant Yusuke vanished, I blinked, looking for him. Then he appeared, slamming Toguro with a volley of punches, all we could see was the bruises forming before Toguro was sent flying backwards. However Yusuke chased right after him, keeping up the constant barrage of punishing blows, to the point where he began pummeling Toguro into the dirt and forming a crater under the two of them.

As quickly as the brutality began it ended, Yusuke bounced backwards and put a lot of distance between himself and Toguro. The crowd went silent as Toguro stood, body black with bruises and blood seeping freely from his mouth.

"One Hundred Percent." His voice came out clearly, ringing like a death sentence in the air. His skin hardened and peeled, his aura exploded like a light coming on. Muscle began forming outside of his skin, enveloping him in an extra layer of flesh, like a gruesome armor he cultivated from his opponents.

He flicked his thumb, and Yusuke was sent flying. Toguro kept up this attack even as Yusuke recovered, forcing the kid onto a heavy defensive. Finally Yusuke broke away and moved in to land a punch, but Toguro stopped him with his outstretched thumb. I barely saw the next punch, but I heard the fateful sound of breaking bone. As Yusuke backed away his left arm hung limp. He had already begun charging energy for a second blast.

This time Toguro puffed out his chest as the attack came, and it dissipated on contact. In an instant he slammed his fist into Yusuke's chest and sent him flying into the audience. Suddenly energy began pouring from the arena, and flying into two small nubs near Toguro's neck. Demons further down began exploding into energy and being drawn in. The crowd decided it did not like the idea of being consumed and began to flee. Walls came up around the ruined arena preventing escape; the desperate demons turned on Toguro in an attempt to survive. The ones that attacked lasted moments.

Enraged Yusuke lashed out at Toguro, flailing wildly; but Toguro beat him to the ground and began stepping on him. With a casual motion Toguro fired a blast, destroying the area next to Keiko. This was apparently enough of an incentive to get Yusuke back on his feet. He charged in landing a successful punch finally, but it was a short-lived burst as Toguro slapped him away again.

I saw a small bird like creature with huge rabbit ears float down to the arena, hovering over Yusuke and Toguro. Then anguished cries of the audience drowned out what was said, but the intent was obvious. Toguro turned away from Yusuke and honed in on the other four in the arena. At that moment I knew this fight was no longer between Yusuke and Toguro. I charged down to stop him, but I was too late. Kuwabara charged, and Toguro's massive fingers punctured him. Blood poured out of his chest as I ran down.

"Yes!" My ears caught hold of that hollow sound. I saw Addan speeding onto the arena, as he passed Toguro he paused. "Don't worry, I'll leave you to your fight. But I think now is as good a time as any to fulfill my mission. Toguro seemed to hesitate, but turned his attention to Yusuke.

"Whatever." He said.

I skidded to a stop, the others behind me, Addan loomed over us; and in the background Yusuke, crippled in despair.


	30. Chapter 30

**Jato**

We spread out a little, the air was thick with the screams of the dying. I felt rather than saw Moot charge Addan. With less than a thought I moved after him. The two of us forced Addon to slip backwards. It shifted its weight slipping between our attacks and I the air explode out of my lungs. Its shoulder receded from my view as I fell backward.

Mousse leapt over me, his white robes dancing wildly as six lengths of chains flew from his robes. With a heavy ring they latched onto Addan. He pulled them taunt, forcing Addan's arms and legs to shift closer together. The metal General held its ground, and tried to pull back. Moot, however, had closed in behind it and swung wide to take the creature's head.

In a flash the metal turned to liquid and slid out of Mousse's chains. The air rippled as the metal took solid form in front of Thorium. Addan reappeared striking, and nearly landed its blow when the ground exploded beneath both of them.

"Where am I now!" Ryoga's thick form burst from the crust of the earth, his yellow shirt torn and dirty with several days travel. He spotted Addan recovering nearby and threw off his person-sized backpack. "Ah-ha! I was hoping I'd get another shot with you." He said as he stalked forward. Addan melted away again, the fluid swinging like a rope around Ryoga toward Thorium again. This time he was ready, his mace became a shield and quickly repelled the fluid back into the arena.

Undeterred, Addan used the momentum to slam into Moot, knocking him back across the arena. A thick fog was beginning to settle around the stage, I could feel strength leaving my body. The air seemed to be pulling at my very soul. I had almost fully recovered, and turned to see Toguro producing the foul mist. Yusuke was up and fighting with everything he had. I turned back to my own fight. Addan was sliding rapidly around the arena when fire leapt around him.

"Are you going to stand there like tools or are you going to finish this guy?" Hiei landed, his hand still burning a little. Addan hesitated, seeming unwilling to pass directly through the flame. Kurama's whip slid through a small hole in the flame and began wrapping itself around Addan. We approached slowly, and Addan fired small bullets made of water that cut clean through my skin. I blinked as blood dripped onto my hand, shock giving way to pain. I moved to strike, but Ryoga stood in front of me, a bullet splattered against his large bicep.

"I'll go in first." He said, before charging forward, Addan's bullets barely affecting his stoney skin. He threw a punch and Addan slid out of the way. Moot broke for the entrance, followed by Thorium and Mousse. The flames seemed to push away the toxic mist as I ran into the fiery fray as well.

Despite our overwhelming numbers, Addan persisted in dodging and swerving, and slowly it was wearing us down. I took in ragged air, and tried to press my attack.

"I have an idea!" Thorium yelled over to me. "It's risky, but push it towards me!" Addan, of course hearing this bolted away from Thorium, aiming to knock Moot out of the smaller ring Hiei had forged. I swung my staff and body into Addan, halting its forward momentum. Mousse's chains slipped around Addan's body, pulling it backward. Finally Ryoga slipped in front of Addan and delivered a solid blow, causing Addan's plate to ring. It lost its footing and Mousse pulled.

It approached Thorium, and he swung his chain. It became fluid, trying to cancel its momentum. Thorium's ball changed mid-flight, becoming almost fluid as it did. It expanded outward, encompassing Addan entirely before sealing itself and Addan.

"Gotcha!" Thorium yelled. The metal of his weapon cracked, watery spears shot out, piercing everyone. Addan pulled itself out slowly, and I tried to remove the shaft stuck in my shoulder; blood pooled under me, and I took a few weak steps forward. Addan moved to strike, and Hiei jumped between us, taking the blow for me. He gagged for a moment, but remained standing.

"What are you doing! Finish him!" Hiei yelled, even as blood oozed from his mouth. Kurama moved to help keep Hiei standing.

"We aren't going to be able to keep this up for much longer, we're still very weak from our own fights." He said, whip out. I wiped sweat out of my eyes and nodded, focusing. There had to be a way. I charged, not having a much better idea I tried to imagine myself as water, fluid, ready to take any advantage I could get.

I collided with its metal hide; and began passing through it. My hand was slowly spreading out over its chest, like a dye put in water. I pushed, it moved backward. It tried to become fluid, with a thought my hand became water as well. I gave chase. It ran toward Thorium, who swung into the watery being. It splattered outward and began reforming slowly. As it did I noticed Thorium's metal shards becoming fluid as well, and being sucked into the creature as it formed.

Addan stood back up, its armor freckled with gray shards.

"I've got you this time." Thorium said.

"Somehow I doubt it." Addan scoffed back. "Honestly, you are providing little more than a warm up for me."

"Talk after my weapon shatters you from the inside out!" Thorium said. I watched the gray shards growing, Addan also seemed to take notice. Its hands scampered over its body trying to figure a way out. I began becoming fluid.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Thorium said. "You'll just spread the disease."

"What?"

"I got the idea just now by watching Jato. It isn't just the small shards you can see, but there are many more smaller pieces I slipped into your framework, slowly destroying you bit by bit." My own jaw dropped as Thorium continued his little victory speech, the shards grew, Addan's armor cracked. It's face plate shattered outward and its chest collapsed before the remains burst into metal dust.

The air behind us filled with a brilliant blue light. I turned to see Toguro, standing in the middle of the arena; his body had become so overlayed with bone and muscle that he barely looked human. The glowing light left him and Yusuke collapsed. Toguro smiled.

"I have to thank you, Yusuke. I've never fought so hard in my life." His armor burst off his body and he collapsed, his flesh peeling off his body in chunks, he became a stone-like substance. The judge looked to the announcer, and the announcer back to the judge. They jumped a little as a noise came from behind them. Yusuke stood, his eyes unfocused. With only a moment's hesitation, the two women made the call.

"Victory goes to Team Urameshi!" The audience burst into applause, before very quickly evacuating the crumbling arena.

It took a few days to get everyone healed up. During that time I explained who we were and what we did to Kurama and Yusuke. They declined the offer to join us, both looking forward to a peaceful life from here on out. So we parted ways, the five of us returning to the portal, to home. Victorious, but unsuccessful in our task.

**Akane**

I was restless as I sat at the large table. To one side sat Tech, a barely contained smile on his face. To my other sat Shampoo, her head leaned backward. Before us sat the Starfleet Commander, to his right the Commander in Chief, to his left the Chief of Staff.

"I apologize for the delay in this meeting." Tech started. "I wanted to make sure there was a rift closer to the main base."

"We understand Captain Kirk found your crew members as stowaways on his ship, is this correct?" The man in the center said, his imposingly thick mustache was suited for his dark face and short black hair. Kirk responded from his position off to one side.

"Ah, yes sir. They proved instrumental in repelling a Klingon attack." He said. "Which is why I asked to allow them to join the Federation." The Commander stepped in at this point, his thick body barely contained by his fancy red suit.

"Usually the application process for entry into the Federation is a relatively simple one. However in this case, they carry a certain baggage with them."

"Sir?" Kirk began.

"They are at war, at this time I cannot recommend bringing in any civilization that is actively at war with another culture."

"While it is true we're at war, this is hardly a self-contained matter. Avarus is an all-consuming being; and will without a doubt attempt to consume you and your society if it means he can gain even a small advantage over us." Tech said.

"Which is my point exactly. The less we interact with your people, the more likely this threat will pass us by." Kirk stood up.

"You are not suggesting we leave these people out in the cold? After they helped us?"

"I believe the Prime Directive applies in this case. They do not have evidence of Warp Technology. Their war is to be considered an internal dispute, and left at that."

"I cannot stand by this decision." Kirk said, his eyes locked on the Commander.

"You do not have to. We do not have the resources to go to war. We have the Klingons to one side and the Romulans on the other. We cannot afford to send troops out after some ghostly threat. There is no evidence backing these people's claim; just their good word. And while we have no reason to distrust them, we also have no reason to waste lives for an implausible war."

"How about a trade then?" Tech asked quietly.

"What would you suggest?" The man in the center spoke suddenly.

"We can live without troops, but we need food and water, basic materials. Anything you can provide for us, I have many tools and devices we can trade in exchange for even one of those replication systems you use to create food." They turned to each other, and whispered for a moment.

"If you give us the device you used to travel through the Dimensional Rifts we can see fit to deliver you at least twelve industrial replicators." The Chief said.

"All I need is one. In exchange for the rest, I would rather be able to send people here as needed; I would like them to be able to learn here." They agreed and the meeting was over.

"What was that about? Sending more people over here?" I asked Tech as we left for the Rift.

"You'll see when we get back. The situations changed, and we're going to have to adapt."


	31. Chapter 31

Author's Note:

I've been considering what works and what doesn't and probably someday I'll go back and edit this thing so it fits better. However that will probably be after I finish work on the main story that this is actually a part of. With that said I'm going to see how I like trying something a little different. I hope everyone enjoys!

**Pahhur**

I massaged my stiff shoulder as I trudged down the hall to the central meeting room. Inside everyone sat in a semi-circle around Tech. I slipped in.

"Now that we're all here we can begin." Tech said. "The fact is that most of you are untrained and mostly incapable when it comes to fighting. Avarus has started showing some of his stronger minions, and we're going to have to step up if we're going to survive. To that effect we're shutting down operations here."

"What? What about the people that are counting on us to stop Avarus?" Neko asked.

"Hear me out. I'm sending each of you to a different world. There you should be able to find a master who can train you. Those of you that are trained will be going to worlds where Avarus is active, hopefully you can grow stronger while you help the people there. Do you understand?" There was a gentle silence.

"What about the people here?" Ranma asked.

"The civilians will be safe here. With only me around this planet becomes less noticeable to Avarus, and it's more likely that the shields will keep him out. Okay, Pahhur. You're with Ranma."

"What?"

"The world I've got picked out for you is an extremely peaceful world. I haven't detected any fighting or extreme magic, so you're going to need a trainer. That's where Ranma comes in."

"I don't trust him to do the job alone." Akane said.

"I don't either, both of them are unreliable. Which is why you're going with them."

"No way! Send someone else!"

"Listen, out of everyone here, you're the only one who can keep Ranma in check."

"Like hell she can!" Ranma yelled. "Bricks for brains has absolutely no sway over me!" Akane bashed his head in with her hammer, and he slipped quietly into unconscious.

"I rest my case. Thorium, Ryoga is going with you."

"What?"

"You're going to a high power world, and Ryoga could benefit from that training as well. Akari has asked to join you, and I've allowed it. Other exceptions, are Metudo; you're with Mousse and Shampoo, Leukos you're with Ukyo and Kotetsu, and Seth you are with Syndil. The rest of you are on your own. Good luck."

With a gentle flash the portal hummed to life. I hefted my bag and stepped out onto a gentle sloping road. The streets seemed bare, and the sky seemed to stretch forever upward over us.

"Come on." Ranma said.

"Where?"

"Ah... Err... Akane did Tech leave any instructions?"

"Actually yes, he did. He rented us a two room apartment and left me a map, our keys and some registration for the local High School."

"Dammit."

"Come on, it's this way." Akane said, leading us uphill. "Once we unpack we should also go find the school and hand in our papers."

"I thought I was supposed to learn to fight." I said.

"I think it's good to be able to go back to real school. Besides, it'll be nice to not have crazy teachers for once."

The apartment was only five rooms, but we didn't have many belongings to unpack anyway. Ranma and Akane each took a room, and left me to unpack on the provided couch. I set my blades down and took out the food I had packed. While I scrounged around I came across a small tanned envelope. Inside there was a small collection of yen and a note.

"Don't spend it all in one place. ~ Neko." I folded the letter and pocketed it and the cash.

"Ready to go? The place is called Majima Private High School. It's up on the north side." Akane said, she was already dressed in a slimmed blue skirt and deep blue blouse. Ranma was still in his usual red Chinese styled shirt and dark blue sweats. "You could at least try to look nice." Akane said.

"Why bother? This is for Pah, not me."

"Yeah except he wanted us all to attend for a reason." Ranma just sighed and tapped his badge. His shirt became a deep blue dress suit and pants combo that made him look taller. I also tapped my badge deciding on a dress suit as well.

As we crested the hill the sports teams were wrapping up practice. By the time the principal finished with our paperwork the sun was setting.

"Aww man, we lost all day today, and I was looking forward to training." I said. We started walking down toward the gate when we heard yelling.

"What is this! A joke! Did you think I'd be happy with a gift like this!" Curiosity overtook me and I slipped closer to see a girl in the school's red uniform. She was swing a basket of fruit and eventually started pitching them at the thin boy nearby. His tussled hair fluttered about as he took a face full of fruit. "Do you really think I'll be able to participate in the meet tomorrow!" He recovered rather quickly and caught one of the thrown apples.

"I think you can. Since you're not injured." She froze mid-throw.

"Wha-"

"You wouldn't be injured so easily by a hurdle."

"How would you know! You've never run! Think of how fast I was going!"

"It would have hurt if you had been going at your top speed. But you weren't!"

"How..."

"You're hair. You didn't have it tied up. You planned to trip from the start." She blushed and dropped the crutch.

"It would be better if I don't participate. My time hasn't been improving, and all the seniors don't want me there. Besides if I came in last it would all be over anyway."

"Isn't fine so long as you give it your best shot? Besides, if it's just ranks, you've always been first in my heart."

The last line snapped me out of my revere, and I realized Ranma and Akane were also hovering nearby watching.

"Shouldn't we be going?"

"Shhh." Akane said. I heard the heavy slap on an apple. The girl had started throwing fruit again. But stopped. Slowly, she pulled a pair of white track shoes out of the basket. The world was silent as she approached the boy.

"Will you come? Will you cheer for me tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Thank you." She leaned over and planted a gentle kiss on his lips. He pulled oddly, eyes wide. Energy burst out in streams around the girl. It gathered above her, a small imp-like goo monster.

"That's new." Ranma said, his clothes shifting back to his red Chinese shirt. "First lesson, kicking evil energy ass!" We prepared to spring out when another girl leapt out of hiding carrying a large bottle. She aimed it at the creature and it was sucked right in. She corked it and put it away.

"Spirit Captured!"

We slipped back into hiding.

"I guess this world isn't as peaceful as Tech said it was." Ranma said grinning broadly.

"Ranma, we're not going to let this get in the way of studying or training okay?" Akane said.

"Right, right. Come on, let's get home. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Final Author's Note:

Sorry for the late update, but I wanted to put one final notice out. Basically I'm going to rotate worlds everytime there is a huge jump in time. But for the most part I'll try and follow the events in one world at a time so that its a little easier for everyone to keep up. For those that are curious I will list the groups/worlds below so you can see what's coming up:

Pahhur/Ranma/Akane – The World God Only Knows

Neko – Toriko

Metudo/Mousse/Shampoo – Mass Effect

Jato - Sonic

Leukos/Ukyo/Kotetsu – Naruto

Anatos – One Piece

Odin – Bleach

Zephos – Star Trek

Moot – Yu Yu Hakusho

Lark – Legend of Zelda

Asuka – Fire Emblem

Thorium/Ryoga/Akari – Dragon Ball

Seth/Syndil – InuYasha

Again I want to point out, you do NOT have to go out and read all of this. I will be somewhat restructuring events as characters start to interfere, and I will be trying to describe the worlds as if no one knows what they are. I will also use the opportunity to start fleshing out the Original Characters over here so that Fan Fic only readers have an idea of who is who.


	32. Chapter 32

**Ranma**

"I thought you were supposed to train her!" Akane's voice left a dull ringing in my ears. A cold wind ravaged the roof of the school, which had been converted into a miniature park, complete with apple green benches.

"I did, I put her through the paces this morning." I said as I leaned onto the bench.

"Then why did you leave her at that club?"

"Well, first, I don't know much about how to use a sword, so I figure the Kendo club will be perfect. And second, it's been a while since we saw another spirit thing. It looks like that girl is completely normal."

"Of course she's normal, she's in our class. I think that guy is in our class too." Akane said, pointing to a kid with messy black hair, his eyes never left the PFP in his hands. "Speaking of class, it'll probably be starting soon."

"You go on ahead, I'm thinking of getting a little training done up here." She snagged my pigtail and dragged behind her.

"I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on both of you. Come on." A dark haired girl passed by us, I caught a glance of an almost invisible pink fabric that hovered of its own free will around her. The small white skull in her hair started blinking red and she quickly covered it, then my ass began hurting as I was dragged down the stairs.

"That woman is a demon." Pah deflated into her seat.

"Good, make sure you go to the club after school." I said.

"And what about you?"

"I'm going to look into a little something..." I said, ahead of me the kid with messy hair still had his PFP out despite the teacher's lecture beginning. I hung outside the class, waiting for him.

"What are you planning Ranma?" Akane hissed in my ear.

"Hey, if there's something interestin' going on I want a part of it. It's not like I can cure my curse anymore." The kid was already turning toward the roof. I trailed him.

He met up with a girl in a thick coat, we slid behind a tree.

"I-I'm sorry for asking you up here." She said, the red of her face barely visible under her clothes. "I'll get this over with as quickly as possible. Just please don't tell my manager." With single sweep of her hand she shed the coat and hat revealing a form fitting pink fur coat with a short skirt. Behind her a sheet fell away revealing a sound system, and she began singing. I heard a small gasp from below me and jumped when I recognized the small girl from earlier. She also jumped when she realized I was behind her.

"Waaa! Wh-What should I do... I-I'm not trailing Kaminiisama!" She scooted away from us.

"Hey, you're the girl that caught that spirit thing earlier." I said. The color drained from her face.

"You shouldn't... Awah!" She started crying and curled to the ground. "I messed up..." She placed a finger at her temple for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "Please forget you ever saw that." She said and bowed.

"No." Her eyes watered again and she curled up.

"Ranma..." Akane said, then knelt to comfort the girl. "I wouldn't worry about us knowing; we're not normal people." She sat up.

"It doesn't matter, anyone not connected to capturing spirits should get involved, it's dangerous!"

"So you're capturing spirits, that reside in people I take it." I said. Her mouth hung open.

"It looks like it's a one person job." Akane said, pointing to the kid chatting with the singer nearby.

"Yeah, damn. I was hoping for something interesting. Well, let us know if anything happens. Name's Saotome, Ranma." I said, holding out my hand.

"Elise... Thank you for ignoring this."

We returned our attentions to training for a while. The Kendo captain was personally teaching Pahhur at this point, particularly how to control her abnormal strength, I had settled into teaching her good form. She took to both rather quickly, as much as she seemed to dislike the effort it took.


	33. Chapter 33

**Ranma**

"Is there anything else you'd like to set fire to? You know, while you're in the neighborhood?" Pahhur cowed her head despite the still burning laundry next to her.

"Sorry."

"Are you two ready for school yet?!" Akane called over to us.

"Pah just burned out uniforms."

"Just use the badges for now. Come on we're going to be late!"

My eyes wavered, the slow drone of the teacher sent the world into a fuzzy haze.

"Gah!" Pahhur let out a little scream. Her desk let off a puff of smoke. The teacher came over to yell at her for what he thought was a lighter; but my eyes were drawn elsewhere. The little skull badge on Elsie's head shimmered for a split second. Even the kid she was with looked up from his PFP for a moment.

As the day dragged forward the list of Pahhur's victims grew, the bathroom door, the spare gym clothes, even the floor of the Kendo club. However, lurking in the shadows nearby were Elsie and the weird kid all throughout the day.

The next morning Pahhur's bedroll was a pile of ash. I tried getting in touch with Tech, but got no answer. Akane suggested we head for class and just try to keep Pahhur in check. However during lunch Elsie stopped the two of us.

"Excuse me, can I talk to you two for a little while?" She asked, dragging Akane and I away from Pahhur.

"I'll go get lunch okay!" She called to us and left.

"What's up Elsie?" She slide her fingers back and forth over her hands.

"You're friend... She has a spirit inside her."

"What!?" Elsie stood between us and the hallway.

"Please, Kami-niisama is already trying to help her. Just stay out of the way!" I flipped over her easily and dashed down the hall after Pahhur.

"Sorry, I kinda knocked into you there, here is this one yours?" I planted my foot and pressed against the corner. It looked like the two had collided, wrapped lunches were strewn across the floor.

"No, I should've been watching where I was going. I think this is yours?"

"Keima. It's nice to meet you."

"Pahhur, does this one have bacon?" He paused for a moment.

"Yes... Would you like it?" I rested my forehead in my hand, I could hear her consuming the sandwich at a rapid pace.

"Ranma! Here's yours!" She handed me a sandwich as she rounded the corner. Keima just spun on his heel and pulled out his PFP.

After class I nearly fell when I found Keima in the Kendo club.

"Ah! Pahhur! I guess we'll be practicing together from here on out!" I stepped away to find Elsie.

"What the hell is he up to? Are you guys gonna get rid of that spirit or not?"

"Just watch. Kami-niisama is a master at capturing spirits."

"Looks more like he's flirting with her." Akane said from behind us causing me to jump.

"Where have you been?!"

"Getting the homework you missed." I scowled in retaliation to her mocking smile and decided to turn that against Elise.

"So when does the bottle come out?"

"Spirits reside in the hole in a girl's heart. We have to fill that hole to pop them out first."

"So, by filling the hole... What?"

"Usually they come out when Kami-niisama kisses the host." Akane matched my blush. I knelt down to look Elise in the eye.

"Does he know she used to be a guy?"


	34. Chapter 34

Author's Note:

Sorry for this being very late this week. 'Twas the week before Spring Break and obviously everything that could go wrong had to.

**Ranma**

Only a few moments later the Kendo clubroom burst into flames. Keima squirmed out, his clothes singed and loose strands of his hair still flickering with dying flames. He groped desperately around in his pocket and retrieved his PFP. As he flicked it on, the whole thing crumbled to ash.

"I'm not doing this one!"

"Kami-niisama..."

"I mean what's up with those freakish powers? Even the last one wasn't this bad and the spirit made her invisible at times."

"So they can affect people's bodies..." I said. Keima jumped as he realized I was still hovering there.

"Elise?"

"Sorry Kami-niisama. These two sort of... figured out most of it." He considered us for a moment, then sat up.

"And you believe this?"

"Honestly, I've seen stranger." Akane said.

"But if they affect people, that might explain Pah's loss of control." I pointed out.

"You think the spirit's somehow making her use her fire power?" Akane asked.

"Wait, she could shoot flames, Before the spirit possessed her?" Keima asked. I nodded.

"Elise, could they be demons? Like you?" She shook her head.

"No, but I think they said they weren't from our world." She said.

"And I assume that includes Pahhur?" I nodded again.

"Is there anything else I might need to know?" I peaked inside the clubroom and saw she was helping clean up the mess.

"Let's talk on the roof."

"Well, basically." Akane started off the little group chat by laying down some cafeteria lunches. "We're involved in a war against this guy named Avarus. Pahhur is one of the targets, so we picked a 'peaceful' place to teach her how to fight."

"As far as need ta know, she used ta be a guy. The way she puts it is she would have died if she hadn't been transformed. That's our story, what about you two?" I said.

"We're looking for the spirits that escaped Hell. They possess women with gaps in their hearts and feed off the negative energy. Kami-niisama is an expert at filling those gaps. We already have three spirits!"

"I somehow don't think Pahhur's going to be easy to woo." Akane said.

"Which means we need ta figure out how ta keep her from burning down the city." I said.

"Exactly how strong is her magic?" Keima asked.

"Well, we're not sure. Before now she rarely used it for much more than eating things she shouldn't."

"This is a rare set-up." Keima muttered. "I'll probably need some help."

Author's Ending notes:

Short one this time, mostly because I really need to think about Keima's plan. Also I'm exhausted and want to get something up.


	35. Chapter 35

Author's Note:

So there is no sanctity of Spring Break anymore. Painters came to my house and I spent all week moving things out of the way and then curling into a corner to avoid the fumes. And while I did manage to play a lot of games and watch a lot of TV (Finished Halo 4, terrible game, and caught up with Game of Thrones amazing TV series.) That all said I think I'm going to move the Fan Fiction chapters to Sunday on a permanent basis. I seem to have the most free time leading up to and including Sunday. That said, enjoy the chapter.

**Keima**

"Kaminiisama, we spent all day with those two, what about the spirit?" Elise asked. My fingers twitched over my game.

"This is a rare mechanic, but let me tell you something good: Sometime the way to the target's problems is through their friends. For someone like this, who is naturally closed off about her problems, we're going to have to find another way in. Those two might just be the key. Elise, I want you to watch them tomorrow, tell me what they usually do."

"Oh that's easy, they're usually up about an hour before the sun rises. They lock some metal balls to Pahhur's legs and chase her through town. Then they practice fighting in the park for a few hours until breakfast." I paused.

"How?"

"They run right past our house every morning. I thought you knew."

I woke early the next morning and dug out a set of sweats. Soon I could hear what Elise had been talking about. The dull grind of metal dragging across the concrete, and excessive swearing. I slipped out of my house in time to see Ranma slip past our front gate. I jogged after them, but they were going at an absurd pace, even with the weights Pahhur was managing to out run people in cars.

"Elise?" I heard her nearby. "Can you get me to the park before them?"

"Probably. Just hold on." She spun her broom around until it was level with the ground. It hovered there for a moment while she sat on it. A moment later and we were in the air.

"What are they?" From our new vantage point I could see them speeding through traffic.

By the time we landed in the park they already had Pahhur doing push-ups with Ranma sitting on her back.

"Hey, spirits kid right?" Ranma asked as we approached. I knelt in front of him.

"Please train me."

"What! Whoa!"

"What!" The two yelled in unison, but Pahhur's shock sent Ranma tumbling off.

"That's... Ha! You're joking right?" Ranma said.

"No, I thought a lot about what we talked about last night, and I can't ignore the dangers you guys are facing. I'd like to help in anyway I can." Ranma glared at me, which was a difficult feat for a man currently sitting upside down.

"We're in no position to say no. But I gotta warn you, it's going to be hard training. Do you think you can keep up?"

"Yes Sensei."

"Alright. Back to push-ups then. Let's see what you can do."

Akane slowly set the plates down as we wrapped up our exercises. By that point every joint in my body was screaming and my shirt had changed colors from the sweat.

"I hope everyone likes the food, I was up all morning getting it ready."

"Akane, what happened to the meal I cooked last night?" Ranma asked as she sloshed a strange mixture of green and gray substance onto his plate.

"Pahhur's accident this morning roasted the fridge. So I had to make due, now are ya going to eat or not?" I swept a little on my fingertip and licked it. My first instinct was to throw up, but sheer will, and lack of stomach acid prevented me.

"Hey this isn't bad!" Pahhur said, shoveling large amounts of the 'food' into her mouth, before eating the disposable chopsticks as well.

"Really! Here, have some more!"

"Akane, you know she can't taste anything, I mean she eats rocks if she can."

"Shut up Ranma! At least someone can appreciate my cooking."

"Yeah, an inhuman girl with a furnace for a stomach. Here have mine." Akane caught his hand.

"Oh no you don't. You need to eat if you're going to be out here all day training." I took the opportunity to slip my own food over to Pahhur.

"I'm done."

"Oh?" Her eyes seemed to glow as she stared me down.

"Same here, let's get back to training." Ranma said, his own food likely also dumped onto Pahhur's plate.

"I'm not done yet." Pahhur said, through a mouthful of gray matter.

Finally it was time to head to school, thankfully Elise helped me wobble my way to the front gates.

"What is the plan?"

"For now we're going after empathy. Remember, humans grow closer due to shared hardships."


	36. Chapter 36

**Keima**

I suckled sweet breath between waves of sweat. Each step sent needles pumping through my veins. My stomach heaved, and I finally collapsed.

"Kaminiisama!" Elsie landed next to me. "What's wrong! We'll never catch up if you just lie there!" She tried to pull me up, and managed to get me sitting.

"Elsie... I don't think I'll be able to survive for much longer like this. We haven't even been making real progress due to her monstrous strength."

"So what are we going to do?"

"I've been thinking about this, judging from how she acts and based on the information we received from her companions, I think it's time we launched an attack." She immediately slid away from me and sat up.

"What do you need me to do?"

"First, I need you to find an open area, that is about... 5 kilometers around. There can't be anything flammable in that space. And then I'm going to need some form of fire proofing."

"What are you going to be doing?"

"Sleeping."

Fortunately, Elsie is best with these menial tasks. I woke in the late evening, and picked out a cheap restaurant nearby the site Elsie had left for me on a note. I loaded up my PFP and sped out the door to the park. Elsie met me there.

"Are they still training?"

"Yes. They ate about four hours ago."

"Stay here." I slipped on the fireproofed suit disguised as a school uniform and waltzed out onto the field. Ranma greeted me.

"Did ya give up or something?" He asked.

"I'm not making progress with the training, so I'm taking a more direct route. Could I pull Pahhur out of training for the evening?" He chuckled.

"Of course you didn't see progress, you only tried for three days. But Pah is mine until nine, pick her up then."

"Then I assume you're fine with her melting the equipment every few hours." He paused.

"Do you have some sorta plan I should know about?"

"Let me take care of her for the evening and I should be able to get that spirit out of her." He considered me for a moment.

"Alright, but we're going with you."

"Fine, but stay out of sight." He finally stepped out of my way. Allowing me to walk up to Pahhur while she was doing crunches on the pull-up bar.

"You made it! I was worried when you didn't show up." She said.

"Ranma just said we could take a break to eat, I know a great restaurant we could go to. I'll pay." The bar melted under her legs.

"Really!" She said, from her new position on the floor.

The sun was dipping down over an empty landscape of concrete, cracked lines coated the old tar. Plant life didn't grow for at least a kilometer in any direction.

"So where's the food?" She asked, tears of drool dripping from her mouth.

"Listen Pahhur, before we go, I want to ask you. Will you go out with me?" Her smile fell from her face. Her eyes stared out at nothing. Her body lit up, fire poured off her flesh, my clothes began sizzling. I slid a mask over my face and covered it with my sleeves. I tried to stand as close to the raging flame as possible without getting burned, but it was quickly becoming a slow retreat.

"What happened!" Ranma yelled. He jumped out from behind some bushes a few yards away.

"Stay back!" I yelled back to him. The tar melted in the fire, pooling around her feet before evaporating into black steam.

"Pahhur! You've got to get control!" I yelled into the inferno. "I know you're hurting! But you can talk to me! We can work whatever is troubling you out, but if you can't get control back you'll burn up your friends!" Her eyes snapped into focus, but the flames grew.

"I, I can't stop them."

"Elsie! The spirit has really gone out of control! How long can your hagoromo protect me!" She hovered down to me.

"I don't know. I can try to get you to her." Her pink cloak fluttered around me and I bolted into the blaze. Sweat made my shirt cling to my body, my nose filled with the scents of burning hair and wool. My foot slid into the small crater forming around Pahhur, I kicked off and the cloak burst away from me. I swung my arms around Pahhur and dragged her mouth to mine.

Wind whipped around me, letting cool air blow across my exposed limbs. The spirit burst out of her, spiraling upward where Elsie managed to capture it. I set Pahhur down while she was still dazed. She blinked a few times.

"Where are we?" She asked. Ranma bolted over.

"Is she alright?"

"She'll have lost a few memories, particularly of me and Elsie but the spirit is gone now. She should be fine." I left, Elsie caught up with me.

"That was amazing Kaminiisama." She said.

"We're going to have to stick close to them, that wasn't my usual capture. I don't think I fixed the hole in her heart, just patched it for now."

"Well that's alright, I talked to Akane, and she agreed to take up your training." My jaw slid open.

"What were you thinking!" I yelled gripped her broom and smacking her with it.

**Leukos**

Trees stretched out and climbed the flat face of a mountainside. Flat except for four large faces carved into the stone wall.

"Come on!" Ukyo shouted up to me. "We're loosing daylight, we need to take these letters to that village before they close their gates!" I slid down the tree I was perched in.

"I'm not too worried."

"Just because you can go really fast doesn't mean the rest of us can. And I'm the one with the letters, so come on!"


	37. Chapter 37

Author's Note:

Sorry about not updating last week, land lord has been trying to sell the house, and I'm dealing with my Thesis for school, and I have twin baby sisters upstairs. So when I wasn't collapsed on the bed sick, I was working my butt off. This week is looking a little better, and hopefully I'll be able to get back on the ball with this.

**Leukos**

Dusk settled on the old wooded floors of the elder's room.

"You want me to do... what? Exactly?" He asked, his voice like fresh gravel.

"We want to be taught ninjitsu," Ukyo said. A man with a deep scar across his face spoke up from behind us.

"Sir, they don't even have chakra. I don't see why we have to-"

"Silence. Please." The old man's eyes slid back to us. "Iruka raises an important point. We train ninjas here, not commoners. We teach people to become weapons, which we then use to defend ourselves and the peace. What could you bring to the table?" I lifted a finger, letting loose a small amount of electricity.

"I can do this," I said, flicking my fingers and sending a bolt of electricity skittering across the desk. The shock dissipated, but the silence did not. The two men behind me, grabbed me and slammed me to the ground.

"Leave him!" The elder said. "If he was going to assassinate me, he would have." They paused, their feet still firmly planted on my back. "Give the two women a place to stay, and have the medical team assess him. I want a full physical by morning."

"Yes sir!" The two said, pulling me up and dragging me out of the room.

The medical rooms were not, comfortable. But all considered it really could have been worse. After a few hours, and a few basic tests, they sent me back to our new 'room'.

"Isn't it a big room Miss Ukyo?" Konatsu said, squeezing a mattress in on the floor. I sat in a corner, my curled legs brushing against Ukyo's. The bedding pressed against all four walls. Konatsu curled into himself and fell asleep almost immediately. Neither of us could really do the same.

My daze was broken by some knocking. Dawn had come and Iruka stood outside, his shadow cracking the light.

"Come on you three, I'll be testing you today." We ploddingly followed him out to a nearby field. He held out a forest green headband with a metal plate attached to the front. "These are a symbol of our village. People who wear these are sworn to protect the peace, and represent us as Konoha Ninja. I have hidden three of these in the village. You have until dusk to find all of them, but be warned, you are being watched. If you are distracted and waste time, we will know. Return to me when you have found them." He waved the cloth like a flag and we had no choice but to head for the village.

End Note:

Sorry that this one is so short. Combination of everything above plus burnout is making it hard to think. But at least there's a bit of a teaser for what I have planned.


	38. Chapter 38

**Leukos**

"Well, I searched everywhere and found nothing," I said, returning to the town square. The sun was just starting to hang over us.

"You were probably running too fast and went right past it," Ukyo said.

"I'll start on these streets, you guys split up," I said. Before they could respond I kicked off, the landscape speeding around me. I snagged a low hanging wire and slid up onto the roofs, where I could get a better view. The front gates were ablaze. I paused, gunshots echoed through the town. People crowded away from the breaking gate. With a jump I was airborne and headed for the gate.

"Where are you headed!" Ukyo was pushing through the streets below.

"Something's happening at the front! I think it's Solarus!"

Sure enough the hollow creatures were lining the surrounding forests, spraying bullets into the village. Among them were blue plated Solarus, rather than wielding guns these carried large tanks on their backs, from them they pulled and threw water in large cannon-like blasts. Furthermore, people stood in their ranks, also lifting and throwing water in destructive arcs. Several Konoha ninja already lay in bloody pools, several others were trying to break the enemy lines. I landed between the two, bullets exploded into dust around me. With a crack my blade extended outward, my powers guiding each individual piece, taking out six of the Solarus. Ukyo pulled past me, using her spatula as a shield she slipped into the trees, I could hear the cracks of her weapon slicing through the thin metal creatures.

Still the front lines were strong, and my energy was waning quickly. Each bullet that burst felt like running a block. I tried to push forward, swinging my blade in hopes of stopping whatever I could. I saw one of the Solarus drop, a chunk of steel poking out of its skull. Two more fell, then one of the men were thrown out of the forest. Four people came out of the forests.

"Just get back from a mission, and this is the welcome we get," Kakashi said, a white haired man with his left eye covered.

"Though this does explain the general lack of water ninja," Sasuke said, a young man wearing a high-cuffed blue shirt. The four opened a breech in the lines, Konatsu landed next to me, several other ninja from the village joining him. Several of them wearing animal masks, these were the ones that, with a few gestures, summoned a wall of earth. Water crashed against walls of dirt and flowed back. The enemy ninja quickly climbed on top of the waves, but the Solarus were not as lucky. Their armor shredded and broke under the weight of their own waves.

Allies gone, the ninja fled into the forests.

The sky turned a golden-brown as the sun crept behind the tree line. The Hokage had the seven of us in his room.

"We have to assume that was a scouting party. ANBU has reported similar attacks in each of the major villages, except Kiriga. I can only conclude they have formed some sort of alliance with these 'Solarus'-

"Which is strange," I said. "Normally Avarus just sends them to level entire planets to the ground, but it seems like he's changing tactics."

"Regardless, we have to prepare for a bigger strike. Kakashi, we will need to bolster our ranks, I want you to help upgrading our security while the village prepares for the Chunin exams. You three will be allowed to participate." He said, placing three headbands on the desk. "You may now consider yourselves Genin of the Leaf."

Outside stars twinkled over the village.

"What do you think he's up to?" I asked. Ukyo tied her new bandana around her excess hair.

"The elder? Probably just trying to keep people safe."

"No, I mean Avarus. Scouting parties isn't something I've seen him do before."

"Maybe he isn't just attacking here, if he's spreading himself out, he may be looking for new allies, just like we are."


End file.
